| Abstract: | ABSTRACT: The analysis of the sea depth in the vicinity of a thermal power plant is important in view of the heat dispersion and transport of the cooling water discharged from the energy production processes. The bathymetry of the Tyrrhenian Sea in the area facing the thermoelectric plant being built at Montalto di Castro, Italy, is reconstructed with the aid of the kriging technique. The large number of measurements (2038) precludes the use of a global interpolation model. At the same time, the steepness of the variogram suggests that the stochastic process is likely non-stationary. The latter problem is managed by detrending the observed records with a fourth-order polynomial drift determined with the least squares method. The global approach is replaced with local models with an influence radius of 70 m and a minimal number of interpolation records equal to 10. The detrended residuals appear to be second-order stationary having an isotropic vaniogram that is fitted equally well by a linear or a spherical function. The average size of the local interpolation models is 28, which ensures a high cemputational efficiency. The bathymetry of the sea area of interest is then reconstructed over a regular grid with a total of 3570 nodes. The estimation standard deviation maps show that the accuracy of the prediction is even greater than the prescribed tolerance (= 0.2 m) and indicate that future data collection campaigns require a less dense and, therefore, less expensive recording network. The redundant measurement profiles are identified. Their elimination still allows for bathymetry estimates affected by interpolation errors that fall within the project specifications. |
