The process of predicting reasonable spatial distributions of surficial sediments in fluvial environments using interpolation techniques can be quite challenging. The process of sediment transport creates anisotropy in the spatial distributions that follow the direction of flow. Standard geostatistical software only allow for the incorporation of one anisotropy direction for the entire problem domain. This is problematic for fluvial environments because an average direction usually misrepresents the local changes in anisotropy throughout the river. A distance transformation technique based on flowlines was applied in an attempt to improve the way geostatistical algorithms deal with anisotropy. The standard geostatistical method of ordinary kriging was modified so that distances measured along, and perpendicular to, flowlines are substituted for the Cartesian coordinate system distances typically used. Five simple test cases were generated using the CH3D hydrodynamic model with sediment transport to examine how the method performs in idealized environments. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2004 .W56. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 43-01, page: 0269. Advisers: Stanley Reitsma; Phil Graniero. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2004
