Identifying spatial characteristics of transmissivity using simulated annealing and kriging methods

Groundwater flow and transport modeling require proper and accurate hydroge ological properties. These hydrogeological data, including information on t ransmissivity or hydraulic conductivity, may contain significant uncertaint y, displaying complex spatial variation. This study identified the spatial patterns and variations in transmissivity in the southeast of Yun-Lin Count y and the north of Chia-Yih County in Taiwan to reveal the spatial characte ristics of hydrogeological formation for groundwater study. The spatial map s of transmissivity were estimated and simulated using ordinary kriging and simulated annealing methods. Correlation analysis revealed that realizatio ns of simulations could fully display the characteristics of transmissivity within this study area. Correlation analysis also indicated that both esti mation and simulation results displayed similar patterns. The spatial maps of the estimation and simulation of transmissivity indicated that simulated annealing could not only reproduce the statistics and spatial variation of the measured transmissivity, but could also identify the global spatial co ntinuity patterns of transmissivity. The simulated maps of transmissivityal so fully illustrate the characteristics of the geological and aquifer chara cteristics of the study area.