Improving Groundwater Imputation through Iterative Refinement Using Spatial and Temporal Correlations from In Situ Data with Machine Learning

Abstract

Obtaining and managing groundwater data is difficult as it is common for time series datasets representing groundwater levels at wells to have large gaps of missing data. To address this issue, many methods have been developed to infill or impute the missing data. We present a method for improving data imputation through an iterative refinement model (IRM) machine learning framework that works on any aquifer dataset where each well has a complete record that can be a mixture of measured and input values. This approach corrects the imputed values by using both in situ observations and imputed values from nearby wells. We relied on the idea that similar wells that experience a similar environment (e.g., climate and pumping patterns) exhibit similar changes in groundwater levels. Based on this idea, we revisited the data from every well in the aquifer and “re-imputed” the missing values (i.e., values that had been previously imputed) using both in situ and imputed data from similar, nearby wells. We repeated this process for a predetermined number of iterations—updating the well values synchronously. Using IRM in conjuncture with satellite-based imputation provided better imputation and generated data that could provide valuable insight into aquifer behavior, even when limited or no data were available at individual wells. We applied our method to the Beryl-Enterprise aquifer in Utah, where many wells had large data gaps. We found patterns related to agricultural drawdown and long-term drying, as well as potential evidence for multiple previously unknown aquifers.