Evaluation of spatial interpolation methods for some groundwater qualitative parameters of Najafabad Plain, Isfahan

Groundwater is the main water source in arid and semi-arid regions. Monitoring water quality and quantity is essential as the groundwater is the most important drinkable and agricultural water source in Iran. Traditional groundwater evaluation methods are expensive and time consuming. Newly developed spatial interpolation method is an accurate and non-expensive method which needs fewer samples comparing to tradition methods. The main goal of this study is to choose the best spatial interpolation methods from geostatistical and deterministic interpolation for zoning (locating) of some water quality parameters in Najafabad plain. Several Spatial methods such as… were applied to study TDS, SAR, pH, cl and hco3. The accuracy and efficiency of studied methods were evaluated applying RMSE and MBE. Results showed that simple kiriging is suitable for zoning cl, hco3, TDS and Ec, IDW is more suitable for pH and ordinary kiriging is best method for zoning SAR. Finally the best spatial interpolation method was applied to develop quality parameter zoning maps. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.