Geostatistical analysis of static level evolution between 1995-2005 and 2007-2017 in San Luis Potosí Aquifer, México

Abstract

Knowing the piezometric levels evolution of an aquifer is essential for planning the use of water resources in the cities of central México, such as San Luis Potosí, whose population depends almost entirely on groundwater. Applying geostatistical methods from georeferenced data can reliably provide information on the spatial variability of valley piezometry. The objective of this study is to evaluate the evolution of the static levels of the aquifer in San Luis Potosí Valley, through an interpolation analysis by the kriging method. For both periods, the experimental variogram was adjusted to the Gaussian model and the method with the best results was ordinary kriging. From this analysis it was obtained that the decay of the static levels is more critical in the central zone of the valley, while the zones of the northwest and towards the south, the aquifer levels have shown an important recovery; the important values for the decrease in static levels coincide with the areas where the population density is greater.