Applicability of the Kriging Method to the Spatially Variable Properties of Dune Sand

Abstract

The applicability of the Kriging technique for the soil properties of dune sand was examined. Sixty-six soil cores were sampled from dune sand surface in a 100m long and 50m wide area at the nodes of a 10m square grid. The measured properties had a silt content, which is the ratio of the weight of that soil passing through a 0.074mm sieve to the bulk sand weight, Na concentration and electric conductivity in 1: 5 soil-water suspension.
The semi-variograms for these properties were approximated by linear-type equations. The neighboring distance determined by the jack-knifing method was 21m at most. Using the values estimated from the Kriging technique, reasonable contour maps for the properties were obtained and they showed definite spatial characteristics for the properties. The comparison of these maps represented the similarity of the distribution between the Na concentration and electric conductivity, but not between the silt content and the other two properties.