Geostatistics for environmental scientists (Q2704796)

This book is structured largely in a sequence that a practitioner would follow in a geostatistical project. It begins with sampling, followed by data screening, summary and display. It considers some of the empirical methods that have been used for mapping, and then it introduces the theory of random processes, spatial covariances, and the variogram which is central to practical geostatistics. Practitioners will learn how to estimate the variogram, what models they may use legitimately to describe it mathematically, and how to fit them.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThere is a brief excursion into the frequency domain to show the equivalence of covariance and spectral analysis. The book then returns to the principal reason for geostatistics, local estimation by kriging. Coregionalization is introduced as a means of improving estimates of a primary variable when data on one or more other variables are at hand or can be obtained readily, and the final chapter introduces disjunctive kriging, a nonlinear method of prediction for decision making. An aide-memoire for spatial analysis is also given which will remind the readers of what they should do and the order in which to do it. It is followed by some simple program instructions in the Genstat language for carrying out the analysis. The book is an excellent monograph and will be useful to soil scientists, ecologists, geographers and environmental scientists.