Real-time modelling and interpolation of spatio-temporal marine pollution

Abstract

Due to the complexity of the interactions involved in various dynamic systems, known physical, biological or chemical laws cannot adequately describe the dynamics behind these processes. The study of these systems thus depends on measurements often taken at various discrete spatial locations through time by noisy sensors. For this reason, scientists often necessitate interpolative, visualisation and analytical tools to deal with the large volumes of data common to these systems. The starting point of this study is the seminal research by C. Shannon on sampling and reconstruction theory and its various extensions. Based on recent work on the reconstruction of stochastic processes, this paper develops a novel real-time estimation method for non- stationary stochastic spatio-temporal behaviour based on the Integro-Di erence Equation (IDE). This meth- odology is applied to collected marine pollution data from a Norwegian fjord. Comparison of the results obtained by the proposed method with interpolators from state-of-the-art Geographical Information System (GIS) packages will show, that signifi cantly superior results are obtained by including the temporal evolution in the spatial interpolations.