Interpolation of groundwater levels using kriging in Sagar district – A research report by National Institute of Hydrology

In this report, an application of kriging technique is presented for interpolation of groundwater levels in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. Groundwater management is important to meet the increasing demand for domestic, agricultural and industrial use. Various management measures need to know the spatial and temporal behavior of groundwater. Most of the groundwater models require the inputs to be available on a grid pattern. However in the field, these parameters are generally measured at random points. However, interpolation of parameters at the grid nodes is a prerequisite for using this data in groundwater modeling.

Interpolation of groundwater levels is of significant importance in agricultural and hydrologic contexts. Water recharged into groundwater is of prime importance in agriculture as it can be conveniently tapped during the dry season. However, if the water table rises to the root zone depth, so as to adversely affect the yield of the crop, the land is said to be waterlogged.

A variety of interpolation techniques are in use, the most widely used methods being polygonal method, triangulation method, isoline method and kriging technique. Polygonal methods are based on the principle of Voroni neighborhood, wherein, the magnitude of the entity at the point under consideration is the same as that at the geometrically nearest measured point.

The main drawback in such a scheme is the spatial discontinuity in the concept. Triangulation methods overcome this drawback by considering spatial continuity on the plane generated by the magnitudes of the entity and these observation points. In the isoline method, isolines for the entity are drawn using linear interpolation techniques. Various studies have shown that kriging performs better than other methods.

Download the report here: