HR: 15:45h
AN: H34A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Modeling Groundwater Depth in the Mississippi Delta Using Weather and ASTER Satellite Data
AU: * Boken, V K
EM: vkboken@olemiss.edu
AF: University of Mississippi, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering 118 Carrier, University, MS 38677 United States
AU: Easson, G L
EM: geasson@olemiss.edu
AF: University of Mississippi, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering 118 Carrier, University, MS 38677 United States
AB: Groundwater resources are often used for irrigating agricultural lands, urban and rural water supplies, and recreational and industrial purposes. In order to plan and regulate the groundwater usage in a sustainable manner, it is necessary to estimate depth to groundwater at a higher resolution in a region. In general, these depths are available only for a limited number of well locations. In this paper, we develop a model for predicting depth to ground water in the Mississippi Delta using variables derived from weather and satellite data. The Mississippi Delta is one of the six geomorphic regions in Mississippi; the other regions are the Coastal Plains, Valley Silty Uplands, Blackland Prairie, Gulf Coast Marsh, and Eastern Gulf Coast Flatwoods. This Delta encompasses approximately 35,000 sq. miles of agricultural lands in 19 of 82 counties of Mississippi. The soils in the Delta are rich in organic matter and are predominantly used for crops, such as cotton, soybean, rice, and corn. The data requirement to develop the model included groundwater depth, precipitation, elevation, and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite data for the study area. We collected ground water depth for various well locations from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, elevation and ASTER data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and precipitation data for various weather stations from the National Climate Data Center. Using ASTER data (in visible and infrared bands) a vegetation index was developed and used as a variable in the model. Using a geographic information system, geospatial interpolation techniques (inverse distance weighted, local polynomial, global polynomial, radial basis function, and kriging) were applied, and a continuous surface showing groundwater depth was created using the ordinary kriging which produced minimum error. The following data were tabulated for the weather station locations: interpolated groundwater depth, elevation, precipitation, and ASTER-based vegetation index. The digital elevation data had a 30 m x 30 m resolution and did not require spatial interpolation. Finally, a regression analysis was performed between groundwater depth (response variable) and elevation, precipitation, and ASTER-derived vegetation index (explanatory variables) to develop the model to predict depth to groundwater for the Mississippi Delta.
DE: 1812 Drought
DE: 1842 Irrigation
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly