中文摘要：

缺乏有效的监测技术是制约土壤学和水文学中尺度问题研究的主要瓶颈。近年来，以电阻率成像法为代表的地球物理学方法被引入到非饱和带土壤水文过程的研究中来，为解决尺度问题提供了新的强有力的工具。结合土壤电阻率与土壤特性之间的岩土物理学关系，电阻率成像法可以实现对土壤特性或状态的多尺度无损连续监测。阐述了电阻率成像法的基本过程、特征及其在土壤水文过程研究中的初步应用。同时，深入探讨了电阻率成像法应用于非饱和带水文过程研究中存在的问题和未来的应用潜力。

英文摘要：

Lack of effective monitoring techniques has become a bottleneck in the study on scaling problem in soil science and hydrology. In recent years, some geophysical methods, of which Electrical Resistivity Tomography （ERT） is representative,were introduced into the researches on soil hydrological processes in vadose zones, which provides a new strong tool for solving the scaling problem. Coupled with the petrophysical relationships between soil electrical resistivity and other soil properties,ERT can be used to realize multi-scaled non-destructive continuous monitoring of soil properties or states. In this paper, a review is presented of the basic steps and characteristics of ERT, and its applications to the stud- ies on soil hydrological processes. At the same time, in-depth discussion was conducted of problems in and potentials of the application of the ERT technology to the studies on soil hydrological process in vadose zones.