SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF TOTAL POROSITY, AIR ENTRY POTENTIAL AND SATURATION WATER-CONTENT IN A CULTIVATED INCEPTISOL .2. ESTIMATION THROUGH KRIGING

Data on total porosity, air entry potential and saturation water conte nt in the unsampled locations of a cultivated inceptisol were estimate d by the geostastical technique of kriging. The semivariogram model ob tained from the semivariance analysis was used to estimate observation s in the unsampled locations within the field. The observations could be estimated with minimum amount of error. Comparison of the mean and standard deviation as well as t-test for least significance showed tha t kriging is an efficient technique for optimal unbiased estimation of observations in the unsampled locations in the field. The minimum sam ple number for estimating a mean value at a given precision level coul d be reduced by two to 2.5 times by kriging technique.