Customer Reviews

Practical Geostatistics: Modeling and Spatial Analysis (with CD-ROM)

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Practical Geostatistics breaks new ground in providing excellent interactive media to supplement the text. In fact, there is more information in the hyperlinked text on the enclosed CD then there is in the text book. The CD is full of colorful 2-D and 3-D renderings and visualizations of various example data sets. Regretfully, the text focuses more on the visualization techniques then on the art of evaluating spatial data. There is little or no discussion of the mathematical concepts behind geostatistics. The worked examples show excellent summary visualizations for the provided data sets, but do not walk the reader through the processes of semi-variogram analysis, cross-validation, kriging, or stochastic simulation. I would recommend this book as a reference for someone interested in presenting geostatistical data evaluations using informative visualization techniques. If the reader is interested in aquiring an understanding of geostatistic, I would instead recommend the texts by I.Clark, P.K.Kitanidis, or C.Deutsch and A.Journel.

This CDROM + book is a special document in the world of the geostatistical literature.

First, it is an interactive document full of illustration, easy to read and navigate. Second, the philosophy is not to emphasize the mathematical aspects but more to demonstrate the importance of taking into account the complex geometrical structure of the geological bodies into succesfull geostatistical studies. Of course, the basics of the theory are presented, but this is also available with much more details in other recent books (see Geostatistics : Modeling Spatial Uncertainty by Chiles and Delfiner for a complete excellent reference). Third, the CDROM demonstrate the application of the approach on real complex cases (2 mining, 1 soil pollution and 1 tunnelling projects) where the geometry of the layers, faults and bodies is controling the processes. Last, all the data sets are provided.

In summary, if you want to see how geostatistics can be applied in real situations, this is the book you need.

The author does not show how to test for spatial dependence between measured values in an ordered set by applying Fisher's F-test to the variance of the set and the first variance term of the ordered set. What also went missing in this text is the fundamental concept of degrees of freedom.