Comparison of Geostatistical Methods to Interpolation the Ground Water Table (Case Study: Urmia Lake Basin)

Interpolation method is one of the most important techniques which have been used in zoning studies. In order to obtain the continuous and integrated maps and predict unknown values, the interpolation method has been used. Since measuring ground water levels is very difficult and costly, therefore the iso-water table maps are used. The main purpose of this research is to compare two geostatistical methods concluded Kriging and IDW methods in order to interpolation groundwater level of the West, South and South-West of the Urmia Lake. In the present study water level data of 634 piezometric wells located in the West, South and South-West of the Urmia Lake in the West Azerbaijan have been used in the period of 2010-2011. Stationary and independence of data were tested using Wald and Wolfowitz methods. Iso-water table maps were drawn using Kriging and Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) methods. The result showed that the Kriging method has better results than Inverse Distance Weighted method.