Temporal and spatial statistical methods to remove external effects on groundwater levels

Abstract

This paper illustrates a project on monitoring groundwater levels elaborated jointly with officers from Regione Piemonte. Groundwater levels are strongly affected by external predictors, such as rain precipitation, neighboring waterways or local irrigation ditches. We discuss a kriging and transfer function approach applied to monthly and daily series of piezometric levels to model these neighboring effects. The aims of the study are to reconstruct a groundwater virgin level as an indicator of the state of health of the groundwater itself and to provide important regulatory tools to the local government.