Evaluation of Interpolation Techniques for the Salinity of Groundwater in Wet and Dry Seasons (Case Study: Minab Plain, South Coast of Iran)

Abstract

The goal of this study is evaluating the accuracy of geostatistical techniques in map zoning of the salinity of groundwater resources using 40 piezometric wells of Minab plain in the south coasts of Iran. The geostatistical techniques were evaluated using cross-validation with the statistical indices of MAE and MBE. Results show that the GPI technique with Gaussian model had the least error and relative deviation as revealed by its higher MAE and lower MBE. It had an MAE of 11 and 10.7 and and an MBE of 0.05 and 0.04 in wet and dry seasons, respectively. There was a good spatial correlation between the measured data at different points so that effective radius and CO/Sill of an isotropic semi-variogram model for wet and dry seasons were 0.14, 0.025, 9.8 and 8.4, respectively. Finally, GPI technique was used as the most appropriate interpolation method to prepare the spatial salinity map.