Spatial prediction of soil infiltration using functional geostatistics

Abstract

The infiltration of water into the soil is a necessary parameter for irrigation systems design. Characterizing its spatial behavior allows a site-specific management of water according to soil conditions and crop requirements. The aim of this study is to establish the spatial distribution of infiltration in an Andisol by means of two geostatistical approaches: on the one hand by means of functional kriging, taking as input infiltration curves (obtained after a smoothing stage), and on the other hand by using classical ordinary kriging on the parameters of the Kostiakov and Phillip models. The comparison between these methodologies is carried out taking as a criterion the sum of squared errors of a leave-one-out cross-validation analysis. The results show a high correlation between observations and predictions (R 2 values around 99%), which indicates that the use of functional geostatistics in this context could be a good alternative. Moreover, from a descriptive point of view, we can point out that the contour maps of basic infiltration (BI), cumulative infiltration (Ci), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks), and sorptivity (S) obtained with the observed data, as well as the predictions by functional geostatistics, show a very similar behavior, which empirically validates the use of this methodology.

An Overview of Kriging and Cokriging Predictors for Functional Random Fields

“…Moreover, the recent fusion of quantitative analyses with spatio-temporal considerations highlights the evolving nature of geostatistical studies [18]. Practical implications of the GFDA span various sectors such as climate science [19], agriculture [20,21], oceanology [22], environmental monitoring [23], geology [24], epidemiology [25], and pollution [26], among others. Through the GFDA, we seek to enhance our comprehension of spatial patterns and relationships, leading to informed decision-making and increased understanding of complex spatial phenomena.…”

Parameter Estimation and Assessment of Infiltration Models for Madjez Ressoul Catchment, Algeria

“…This is generally achieved by fitting linearly or nonlinearly field experiment measurements to well-established and widely accepted theoretical models of infiltration. Consequently, distribution graphs and parameters can be obtained based on multivariate statistical and geostatistical analyses [25]. Such studies have assessed and compared the reliability and effectiveness of new and traditional infiltration models based on standard statistical criteria [26][27][28][29].…”