A comparison of spatial interpolation methods for estimation of average electromagnetic field magnitude

Several georeferenced measurements of electric field were done in a pilot area of Caracas, Venezuela, to verify that the magnitude of radio frequency electromagnetic fields is below the human exposure limits, recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. The collected data were analyzed using geographical information systems, with the objective of using interpolation techniques to estimate the average electromagnetic field magnitude, to obtain a continuous dataset that could be represented over a map of the entire pilot area. This paper reviews the three methods of interpolation used: SPLINE, Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) and KRIGING. A statistical assessment of the resultant continuous surfaces indicates that there is substantial difference between the estimating ability of the three interpolation methods and IDW performing better overall.