Integrated Site Intelligence
Two assessments, one subsurface, read as a single system
C1 + C2 + vadose zone · Forensic Asset Hydrogeology
Forensic Asset Hydrogeology, the interpretation layer that reads the soil assessment, the unsaturated profile and the groundwater assessment as one system. In practice, many C1 soil assessments characterise the shallow sampled profile, while groundwater and hydrogeological studies focus on the saturated system. The unsaturated profile between the investigated soil interval and the water table is therefore frequently not characterised hydraulically. This service is scoped to close that gap.
The gap it closes
The profile between the soil investigation and the water table is frequently left uncharacterised
In practice, many C1 soil assessments characterise the shallow sampled profile, while groundwater and hydrogeological studies focus on the saturated system. The unsaturated profile between the investigated soil interval and the water table is therefore frequently not characterised hydraulically.
That interval is not forbidden ground; it is simply unowned. It is where two competent studies meet, and it is the interval that controls timing, how much of what reaches the surface arrives at the water table, and when. Integrated Site Intelligence is a coupling, not a new survey: it characterises the interval that neither study was scoped to cover, using evidence that already exists but is held by different disciplines.
Source, pathway, receptor
The questions neither assessment answers alone
Each of these requires soil properties, unsaturated-zone physics and saturated-system behaviour at the same time. The interpretation follows the chain from a surface source, through the profile, to the receptors and the assets on the path.
Source
How much of what reaches the surface actually enters the profile?
The soil assessment measures the texture, bulk density and structure; it does not compute the flux that those properties control.
Pathway
How long does a pulse take to cross the unsaturated interval?
How much water the interval holds, and how long a pulse takes to traverse it, is exactly the question neither study is scoped to cover.
Pathway
When, and by how much, does the water table respond?
The groundwater assessment observes the level on the day it was sampled; it does not predict the response to a surface change.
Receptor
Once at the table, where does the water go, and how fast?
Lateral migration is the groundwater assessment's domain, but it needs the interval above to know what arrives, and when.
Receptor
Which receptors lie on that path?
Abstraction, ecology, surface water, adjacent land, the receptors are identified from the pathway, not assumed from the map.
Asset
Which foundations, basements and buried services sit in the affected zone?
The infrastructure in the rising or migrating zone is neither discipline's remit on its own, and it is where the risk becomes an asset question.
Method and disclosure
Every statement carries the class of evidence behind it
The interval is characterised with a physically-based unsaturated-zone solver (Sadeghi et al., 2026), a method statement, not a claim about the standing of its output. What makes the interpretation usable is that nothing hides behind a finished-looking number: each statement is labelled with the class of evidence that supports it, and a modelled value is never presented as a measurement.
Measured
A value read directly from a laboratory result or a field record.
Inferred
A value produced by a pedotransfer function or the unsaturated-zone solver, modelled, and labelled as modelled.
Interpreted
A hypothesis the evidence supports, stated with the modality the evidence permits.
Recommended
A next measurement that would confirm or falsify a claim, advice, with no evidential weight of its own.
Where a mapped or regional characteristic predicts a feature below the investigated interval, that is named as an open question rather than left as silence, an absence of evidence is not written up as evidence of absence.
What you receive
The integrated assessment deliverable
- Integrated interpretation across the soil profile, the unsaturated zone and the saturated system, rather than two assessments read side by side
- Characterisation of the profile that neither investigation was scoped to cover, using a physically-based unsaturated-zone solver as the method
- Contaminant pathway assessment from surface soils to groundwater: infiltration, leaching, attenuation and preferential flow
- Source-pathway-receptor analysis linking a soil observation to a groundwater observation, or stating plainly where the evidence does not support the link
- Open questions raised explicitly, where a mapped or regional characteristic predicts a feature below the investigated interval, that is named as an open question rather than left as silence
- Risk interpretation for the asset: what the subsurface system implies for foundations, buried services and compliance obligations
- Recommendations, with the disclosure class of every statement stated: measured, inferred, interpreted or recommended
How we describe it
Integrated interpretation, offered as exactly that
This is integrated interpretation across soil, the unsaturated zone and groundwater, and the practice gap it closes. It draws on both the soil and the groundwater specialist, so a certified deliverable is a human act signed by the named people responsible, reviewed claim by claim, as with every certified assessment we issue.
We are deliberate about what we do not claim. The interpretation is labelled by disclosure class throughout, and a modelled value stays labelled as modelled rather than dressed up as a measurement. When you commission it, we tell you which parts are measured, which are inferred, which are interpreted and which are recommended, before you read a single conclusion.