Geostatistical investigation into the temporal evolution of spatial structure in a shallow water table
Authors: Lyon S. W. , Seibert J. , Lembo A. J. , Walter M. T. , Steenhuis T. S. 
Published: April 2010

Abstract. Shallow water tables in the near-stream region often lead to saturated areas in catchments in humid climates. While these saturated areas are assumed to be of importance for issues such as non-point pollution sources, little is known about the spatial and temporal behavior of shallow water tables and the resulting saturated areas. In this study, geostatistical methods are employed demonstrating their utility in investigating the spatial and temporal variation of the shallow water table for the near-stream region. Event-based and seasonal changes in the spatial structure of the shallow water table, which directly influences surface saturation and runoff generation, can be identified and used in conjunction to characterize the hydrology of an area. This is accomplished through semivariogram analysis and indicator kriging to produce maps combining supplemental soft data (i.e., proxy information to the variable of interest) representing seasonal trends in the shallow water table with hard data (i.e., the actual measurements) that represent variation in the spatial structure of the shallow water table per rainfall event. The area used was a hillslope located in the Catskill Mountains region of New York State. The shallow water table was monitored for a 120 m×180 m near-stream region at 44 sampling locations on 15-min intervals. Outflow of the area was measured at the same time interval. These data were analyzed at a short time interval (15 min) and at a long time interval (months) to characterize the changes in the hydrology of the region. Indicator semivariograms based on transforming the depth to ground water table data into binary values (i.e., 1 if exceeding the time-variable median depth to water table and 0 if not) were created for both time interval lengths. When considering only the short time interval, the indicator semivariograms for spring when there is excess rainfall show high spatial structure with increased ranges during rain events with surface saturation. During the summer, when evaporation exceeds precipitation, the ranges of the indicator semivariograms decrease during rainfall events due to isolated responses in the water table. When summarized over a longer, monthly time interval, semivariograms exhibited higher sills and shorter ranges during spring and lower sills and longer ranges during the summer. For this long time interval analysis, there was a good correlation between probability of exceeding the time-variable median water table and the soil topographical wetness index during the spring. Indicator kriging incorporating both the short and long time interval structure of the shallow water table (hard and soft data, respectively) provided more realistic maps that agreed better with actual observations then traditional hard data alone. This technique to represent both event-based and seasonal trends compensates for spatially sparse observations while incorporating physical hydrology of the hillslope to capture significant patterns in the shallow water table. Geostatistical analysis of the spatial and temporal evolution of the shallow water table gives information about the formation of saturated areas important in the understanding hydrological processes working at this and other hillslopes.