What is geostatistics?

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What is geostatistics?

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Geostatistics is a class of statistics used to analyze and predict the values associated with spatial
or spatiotemporal phenomena. It incorporates the spatial (and in some cases temporal)
coordinates of the data within the analyses. Many geostatistical tools were originally developed
as a practical means to describe spatial patterns and interpolate values for locations where
samples were not taken. Those tools and methods have since evolved to not only provide
interpolated values, but also measures of uncertainty for those values. The measurement of
uncertainty is critical to informed decision making, as it provides information on the possible
values (outcomes) for each location rather than just one interpolated value. Geostatistical
analysis has also evolved from uni- to multivariate and offers mechanisms to incorporate
secondary datasets that complement a (possibly sparse) primary variable of interest, thus
allowing the construction of more accurate interpolation and uncertainty models.
Geostatistics is widely used in many areas of science and engineering, for example:
l The mining industry uses geostatistics for several aspects of a project: initially to quantify
mineral resources and evaluate the project's economic feasibility, then on a daily basis in
order to decide which material is routed to the plant and which is waste, using updated
information as it becomes available.
l In the environmental sciences, geostatistics is used to estimate pollutant levels in order to
decide if they pose a threat to environmental or human health and warrant remediation.
l Relatively new applications in the field of soil science focus on mapping soil nutrient levels
(nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and so on) and other indicators (such as electrical
conductivity) in order to study their relationships to crop yield and prescribe precise amounts
of fertilizer for each location in the field.
l Meteorological applications include prediction of temperatures, rainfall, and associated
variables (such as acid rain).
l Most recently, there have been several applications of geostatistics in the area of public
health, for example, the prediction of environmental contaminant levels and their relation to
the incidence rates of cancer.
In all of these examples, the general context is that there is some phenomenon of interest
occurring in the landscape (the level of contamination of soil, water, or air by a pollutant; the
content of gold or some other metal in a mine; and so forth). Exhaustive studies are expensive
and time consuming, so the phenomenon is usually characterized by taking samples at different
locations. Geostatistics is then used to produce predictions (and related measures of uncertainty
of the predictions) for the unsampled locations. A generalized workflow for geostatistical studies
is described in The geostatistical workflow.

Related Topics
What is the ArcGIS Geostatistical Analyst extension?
The geostatistical workflow

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