GEOSTATISTICS / INTRODUCTION TO GEOSTATISTICS

Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies

Master of Science in GIS & Science

SPATIAL DATA USED IN CLASSES AND ASSIGNMENTS

FILES PROVIDED
Info layer
Study area
(Limit folder)
Samples locations
(Stations folder)

File type

Description

Shapefile

Polygon

Limit of the study region in

the south of Portugal

Shapefile

Point

Weather stations' locations

DEM

Digital Elevation Model for

the study region

Raster

(Elevation folder)
Precipitation indices

Geometry

Excel

Point

Annual precipitation indices

to be modelled

DATA DETAILS
The study domain refers to the south of continental Portugal, and is defined by
the Arade, Guadiana, Mira, Ribeiras do Algarve and Sado basins. The monitoring
network used is an original set of 105 monitoring stations, distributed irregularly
over the study region (Figure 1), with precipitation data within the period 19401999. The daily precipitation record were compiled from the National System of
Water Resources Information database (SNIRH Sistema Nacional de Informao
de Recursos Hdricos, http://snirh.inag.pt) and from the European Climate
Assessment & Dataset (ECA&D, http://eca.knmi.nl).

Geostatistics: Lab data

Figure 1 Elevation of the study region in the South of Portugal and stations'
locations

Elevation data were taken from a digital elevation model (DEM) with a grid
resolution of 85 m 85 m and resampled to an 800 m 800 m grid mesh (Table
1).

Table 1 Grid parameters of the digital elevation model

Parameter

Value

Cell size

800 m

Num. columns

227

Num. rows

329

X coord. lower left corner

122779,11716267

Y coord. lower left corner

2235,3282028116

NODATA value

-9999

A set of indices of precipitation extremes will be used for geostatistics modelling

(Table 2). These annually defined indices were computed for the set of 105
stations using daily rainfall observations (not provided) of the period 1980-1989
(Excel file with the 1980s decade data). The R5D index is also available for the
1990s decade and will be used in class examples. Extreme precipitation indices
are sensitive to the number of missing days. Therefore, for each station, the
indices for a specific year were set to missing if there were more than 16% of the
Ana Cristina Costa

Geostatistics: Lab data

days missing for that year. Missing records (NODATA) are coded with the -9999
value.

Table 2 Acronyms and definitions of the indices of precipitation extremes

Index

Explanation

Units

Characterizes the maximum length of wet spells.

CWD

Maximum number of consecutive wet days per year.

A wet day is defined as a day with at least 1 mm of
precipitation (R 1 mm).

days

Characterizes the frequency of rainy days.

R1

R1day

Number of wet days per year.

A wet day is defined as a day with at least 1 mm of
precipitation (R 1 mm).
Characterizes the magnitude of the heaviest
precipitation event.

days

mm

Highest 1-day precipitation total per year.

SDII
Simple
Daily
Intensity
Index

R5D

Characterizes the average intensity of rainy days

(i.e. represents the daily average amount of rain on rainy
days).
Ratio between the total rain on wet days and the number
of wet days, per year.

mm

A wet day is defined as a day with at least 1 mm of

precipitation (R 1 mm).
Provides a measure of medium-term precipitation
totals.
Highest consecutive 5day precipitation total per year.

Ana Cristina Costa

mm