Impacts of interpolation techniques on groundwater potential modeling using GIS in Phuket Province, Thailand

• Main Authors: Charoenpong,S., Suwanprasit,C., Thongchumnum,P.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=84880003242&origin=inward; http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/39156
• Institution: Chiang Mai University

Groundwater is one of the most valuable natural resources, which supports human health, economic development and ecological diversity. To understand the spatial distribution of groundwater specific capacity (SPC) which referred to groundwater potential in Phuket province is necessary. The objectives of this study were to investigate an appropriate interpolation method to estimate SPC trend and monitor the groundwater potential in Phuket Province, Thailand. SPC data was collected from Department of Groundwater Resources between 1995 and 2011. The data was processed by GIS using three different interpolation techniques (Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW), Kriging, and Splines). Statistical analysis using stepwise regression was applied for each interpolation technique to select the best fitted model. Results showed that IDW method produced the most accurate interpolating model for SPC estimation compared to Kriging and Splines. It was therefore concluded that the IDW method should be used in producing the SPC surface maps in the study area.