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Geostatistical analysis of the integration of spatial information on nitrate–N observations and agricultural land uses for establishing groundwater pollution zones

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Abstract

Groundwater nitrate–N pollution is common in agricultural regions, mainly originating from surface agricultural activities. Integrating spatial information on nitrate–N observations and agricultural land uses is crucial for establishing groundwater pollution zones. To combine agricultural land uses into groundwater nitrate–N pollution, this study used regression kriging (RK) to determine groundwater pollution zones in the Choushui River alluvial fan in Taiwan. First, a multivariate linear regression (MLR) model was employed to explore the relationship between groundwater nitrate–N pollution and agricultural land-use types. Then, simple kriging (SK) was adopted to analyze residuals obtained from gaps between nitrate–N observations and MLR predictions; the SK estimates of the residuals with the addition of the MLR predictions served as the RK estimates for groundwater nitrate–N pollution. Finally, groundwater pollution zones were determined according to a specific anthropogenic nitrate–N pollution level. The study results revealed that the “orchard” land-use type positively contributed to groundwater nitrate–N in contract to the “livestock house” and “agricultural facility” land-use types, which were negatively related to groundwater nitrate–N. Moreover, the RK estimates, which had the ability to characterize the potential pollution source of the orchard land-use type and enhanced the accuracy of the classification of polluted and unpolluted areas through modification of the residuals, were suitable for establishing groundwater pollution zones. In addition, feasible management strategies of orchards located in the groundwater pollution zones must be implemented to reduce nitrate–N leaching.

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Data availability

Data are available from the corresponding author upon requests.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Agriculture Engineering Research Center generously supporting nitrate-N data in the Choushui River alluvial fan.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan for financially supporting this research under Contract No. MOST 110-2121-M-424-001.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Kainan University, Taoyuan City, 338, Taiwan

    Cheng-Shin Jang

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei City, 106, Taiwan

    Shih-Kai Chen & Yuan-Yu Lee

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  1. Cheng-Shin Jang
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Contributions

C-SJ: conceptualization, methodology, GIS analysis, geostatistical analysis, and writing; S-KC: GIS analysis and writing; Y-YL: GIS analysis and writing.

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Correspondence to Cheng-Shin Jang.

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Jang, CS., Chen, SK. & Lee, YY. Geostatistical analysis of the integration of spatial information on nitrate–N observations and agricultural land uses for establishing groundwater pollution zones. Environ Earth Sci 82, 349 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-023-11041-8

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