Abstract

Groundwater is the main water resource in Tenerife (Canary Islands) where it represents almost 90% of the consumption. For the Insular Hydrological Plan the most important aquifer in the future will be the one located in Las Cañadas which belongs to the III Hydrogeological Zone. For exploiting this aquifer in a rational way in the future it is necessary to know and assess carefully the recharge estimates. It is for this reason, that the choice of the rainfall interpolation method is so important. In this study three different interpolation methods have been used to compare their results with the real data of the gauges and to obtain doing that, the best precipitation estimate in the area. The results show the ordinary kriging to be the best interpolation method in the study area and that the use of the relationship between elevation and precipitation do not increase the accuracy of the interpolation even though the climatic characteristics of the island have been taken into account