Application of geostatistical methods to groundwater salinization problems: A review

•This article reviews the recent key applications of geostatistical methods to address challenges relevant to groundwater salinization.•Numerous studies are discussed that employ geostatistical and multivariate tools for identifying the origin of salinity sources and clarifying the relationship among salinity indicators and groundwater processes.•A plethora of studies are discussed that consider the quantification of the uncertainty propagation of the inputs to the outputs of either physically-based or surrogate models of the geological systems.•Several recommendations and future directions are identified in terms of the most popular methods and key geostatistical methods whose application in this thematic area is still very limited.•Reducing computational cost is expected to remain a significant challenge.