Illinois Water Resources Center
Project Impact:
The focus of the study was estimation of hydraulic conductivity in a watershed using Multi-source
Data via Co-Kriging and Bayesian Experimental Design. We presented a quantitative Multi-fidelity
framework and for the first time combined information from Electrical Earth Resistivity (EER) tests
and pumping tests (as two tests with different accuracies) to enhance the understanding about the
geological and hydrological characteristics of a watershed. Also, for the first time, we investigated
how future tests with different fidelities should be conducted to optimally enhance our understanding
about the hydraulic properties of a region. Specifically, we studied an intensively managed area
located in the Upper Sangamon Watershed in Central Illinois, U.S.A., and generated 2D maps of
hydraulic conductivity over a large-scale region with quantified uncertainties in different depth layers.
We also investigated how a more accurate model can “learn” from new sensors using probabilistic
statistical tools, and how the best locations for future data collection can be selected.