Evaluation Of Spatial Interpolation Techniques For Mapping Groundwater Nitrates Concentrations - Case Study Of Ain Elbel-sidi Makhlouf Syncline In The Djelfa Region (algeria)

Résumé: The presence of nitrate is one of the factors limiting the quality of groundwater resources, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Geostatistical methods have been used widely as a convenient tool to make a decision on the management of the behavior of hydrochemical parameters in groundwater. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of several spatial interpolation methods, comparing inverse distance weighting (IDW), simple kriging, ordinary kriging, and universal kriging methods using nitrate concentration data from 305 groundwater wells in the synclinal of Ain el bel-Sidi Makhlouf (Algeria). To select the best interpolation method, errors of predicted values were determined by Mean Error (ME) and Root Mean Square Standardized Error (RMSS). The results make clear that Kriging methods performed better, showing greater consistency in the generated surfaces, fewer interpolation errors, and lower biases. However, universal kriging was determined to be the optimal method, striking a balance between accuracy and simplicity and gives a good spatial distribution of the nitrate contents in the syncline of Ain el bel and Sidi Makhlouf.

Publié dans la revue: LARHYSS Journal