Geostatistical Analysis of Groundwater Quality in Western Australia

Abstract

This study analyzed groundwater quality in Western Australia using geostatistical tools based on kriging interpolation technique. Four semi-variogram models were tested and out of the four semi-variogram models, exponential semi-variogram model was considered as the best fit for groundwater quality parameters. Surfer software was highly used in vulnerable mapping of the analyzed data and generated gridding report of each plotted graph was advantageous in determining geostatistical characteristics of data sets. The spatial distribution of groundwater quality across Western Australia concluded that Perth and Wheatbelt regions experience major groundwater quality issues due to commercial and industrial impacts. Temporal analysis of groundwater quality shows that, almost all the locations indicated increasing groundwater pollutant levels. The main focus was on the period of time from 2005 to 2011 due to inconsistent readings in the certain years before 2005. This study is beneficial for engineers, decision makers and managers for their management processes on groundwater quality control.