Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Journal articles
  4. Comparison of Three Imputation Methods for Groundwater Level Timeseries
 
research article

Comparison of Three Imputation Methods for Groundwater Level Timeseries

Meggiorin, Mara
•
Passadore, Giulia
•
Bertoldo, Silvia
Show more
February 1, 2023
Water

This study compares three imputation methods applied to the field observations of hydraulic head in subsurface hydrology. Hydrogeological studies that analyze the timeseries of groundwater elevations often face issues with missing data that may mislead both the interpretation of the relevant processes and the accuracy of the analyses. The imputation methods adopted for this comparative study are relatively simple to be implemented and thus are easily applicable to large datasets. They are: (i) the spline interpolation, (ii) the autoregressive linear model, and (iii) the patched kriging. The average of their results is also analyzed. By artificially generating gaps in timeseries, the results of the various imputation methods are tested. The spline interpolation is shown to be the poorest performing one. The patched kriging method usually proves to be the best option, exploiting the spatial correlations of the groundwater elevations, even though spurious trends due to the the activation of neighboring sensors at times affect their reconstructions. The autoregressive linear model proves to be a reasonable choice; however, it lacks hydrogeological controls. The ensemble average of all methods is a reasonable compromise. Additionally, by interpolating a large dataset of 53 timeseries observing the variabilities of statistical measures, the study finds that the specific choice of the imputation method only marginally affects the overarching statistics.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.3390/w15040801
Web of Science ID

WOS:000942189800001

Author(s)
Meggiorin, Mara
Passadore, Giulia
Bertoldo, Silvia
Sottani, Andrea
Rinaldo, Andrea  
Date Issued

2023-02-01

Publisher

MDPI

Published in
Water
Volume

15

Issue

4

Start page

801

Subjects

Environmental Sciences

•

Water Resources

•

Environmental Sciences & Ecology

•

groundwater piezometric heads

•

timeseries imputation

•

interpolation

•

missing data

•

autoregressive linear model

•

patched kriging

•

bacchiglione basin veneto

•

water security

•

time-series

•

aquifer

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
ECHO  
Available on Infoscience
April 10, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/196789
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés