Surface-wave analysis for building near-surface velocity models — Established approaches and new perspectives

TLDR

Surface‑wave analysis is widely used to build near‑surface S‑wave velocity models, and its popularity has grown rapidly over the past decade due to ongoing scientific debate and interdisciplinary interest. This review surveys the literature, detailing historical development, methodological challenges, applications, and promising recent approaches, including higher‑mode inversion for lateral variations and a best‑practices guideline.

Abstract

Today, surface-wave analysis is widely adopted for building near-surface S-wave velocity models. The surface-wave method is under continuous and rapid evolution, also thanks to the lively scientific debate among different disciplines, and interest in the technique has increased significantly during the last decade. A comprehensive review of the literature in the main scientific journals provides historical perspective, methodological issues, applications, and most-promising recent approaches. Higher modes in the inversion and retrieval of lateral variations are dealt with in great detail, and the current scientific debate on these topics is reported. A best-practices guideline is also outlined.