Application and evaluation of kriging and cokriging methods on groundwater depth mapping

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Hydrogeology
• Geostatistics

Background:

• Sustainable water resources management is crucial for arid and semi-arid regions.
• Understanding groundwater depth fluctuations is vital for conserving water resources.
• Geostatistical techniques can reveal critical water resource conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate kriging and cokriging methods for mapping groundwater depth.
• To analyze spatial variations in groundwater depth across different climatic conditions (dry, wet, normal).
• To assess the accuracy of geostatistical approaches for water resource management.

Main Methods:

• Geostatistical analysis using kriging and cokriging.
• Mapping groundwater depth over a 12-year period with significant climatic variations.
• Calculating Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) to compare method accuracy.

Main Results:

• Groundwater depth exhibits spatial variability influenced by climatic conditions.
• Cokriging demonstrated slightly higher accuracy than kriging in mapping groundwater depth.
• Both methods showed underestimation, with cokriging providing less biased results across different climate types.

Conclusions:

• Geostatistical approaches, particularly cokriging, are reliable for mapping groundwater depth.
• Farming in dry conditions requires careful management due to high groundwater depth variability.
• These methods aid water resource managers in allocating groundwater under varying environmental conditions.