Matheron's Theory of Regionalised Variables


Book Description

In the summer of 1970, Georges Matheron, the father of geostatistics, presented a series of lectures at the Centre de Morphologie Mathmatique in France. These lectures would go on to become Matheron's Theory of Regionalized Variables, a seminal work that would inspire hundreds of papers and become the bedrock of numerous theses and books on the topic; however, despite their importance, the notes were never formally published. In this volume, Matheron's influential work is presented as a published book for the first time. Originally translated into English by Charles Huijbregts, and carefully curated here, this book stays faithful to Matheron's original notes. The text has been ordered with a common structure, and equations and figures have been redrawn and numbered sequentially for ease of reference. While not containing any mathematical technicalities or case studies, the reader is invited to wonder about the physical meaning of the notions Matheron deals with. When Matheron wrote them, he considered the theory of linear geostatistics complete and the book his final one on the subject; however, this end for Matheron has been the starting point for most geostatisticians.




Matheron's Theory of Regionalized Variables


Book Description

In the summer of 1970, Georges Matheron, the father of geostatistics, presented a series of lectures at the Centre de Morphologie Mathmatique in France. These lectures would go on to become 'Matheron's Theory of Regionalized Variables,' a seminal work that would inspire hundreds of papers and become the bedrock of numerous theses and books on the topic; however, despite their importance, the notes were never formally published. In this volume, Matheron's influential work is presented as a published book for the first time.




Archaeological Spatial Analysis


Book Description

Effective spatial analysis is an essential element of archaeological research; this book is a unique guide to choosing the appropriate technique, applying it correctly and understanding its implications both theoretically and practically. Focusing upon the key techniques used in archaeological spatial analysis, this book provides the authoritative, yet accessible, methodological guide to the subject which has thus far been missing from the corpus. Each chapter tackles a specific technique or application area and follows a clear and coherent structure. First is a richly referenced introduction to the particular technique, followed by a detailed description of the methodology, then an archaeological case study to illustrate the application of the technique, and conclusions that point to the implications and potential of the technique within archaeology. The book is designed to function as the main textbook for archaeological spatial analysis courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level, while its user-friendly structure makes it also suitable for self-learning by archaeology students as well as researchers and professionals.




Land Degradation


Book Description

This book contains selected contributions from the Sixth Meeting of the International Geographical Union's Commission on Land Degradation and Desertification, held in Perth, Australia, in September 1999. Collectively, these contributions explicitly seek to understand not only the mechanisms responsible for the problem of land degradation but their social and economic implications, the means of overcoming the problems, and the policy instruments whereby remedial measures may be implemented. This breadth of approach is both distinctive and essential if the problems are to be tackled effectively. The authorship comprises of specialists (mostly geographers) from universities, research organizations, and government agencies, who provide a truly international perspective with contributions from Iceland to Australia and from the USA to Japan. Audience: The book presents current research findings which will be of particular benefit to professionals and practitioners, as well as researchers and tertiary-level educationalists who are involved with land degradation.




Geostatistics for Estimating Fish Abundance


Book Description

Geostatistics is a branch of spatial statistics that was originally developed for the mining industry. The technique is now widely recognised as an important tool for the estimation of the abundance and distribution of natural resources. However, new developments have been required to extend its application to fisheries science, particularly in variogram estimation. This important new title describes the fundamentals of geostatistics in terms more familiar to life-scientists, and uses case studies on seven commercially important fish stocks to demonstrate its application to fisheries survey data. Comprehensive and practical advice is given on how this new method can be used to estimate the abundance (with an appropriate measure of precision) of fish stocks worldwide. Geostatistics for Estimating Fish Abundance will be of vital interest to fisheries research scientists, marine biologists, oceanographers, marine and fish ecologists, environmental scientists and experts involved in the assessment of natural animal resources. The book has been developed as a result of studies carried out by a collaborative team of international researchers expert in this area with financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, AIR specific RTD programme. J. Rivoirard and N. Bez are at the Centre de Géostatistique de Fontainebleau, Ecole des Mines de Paris, France, J. Simmonds and P. Fernandes are at the FRS Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, UK and K. Foote is at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway and at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA.




Guidelines for Surveying Soil and Land Resources


Book Description

Guidelines for Surveying Soil and Land Resources promotes the development and implementation of consistent methods and standards for conducting soil and land resource surveys in Australia. These surveys are primarily field operations that aim to identify, describe, map and evaluate the various kinds of soil or land resources in specific areas. The advent of geographic information systems, global positioning systems, airborne gamma radiometric remote sensing, digital terrain analysis, simulation modelling, efficient statistical analysis and internet-based delivery of information has dramatically changed the scene in the past two decades. As successor to the Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbook: Guidelines for Conducting Surveys, this authoritative guide incorporates these new methods and techniques for supporting natural resource management. Soil and land resource surveyors, engineering and environmental consultants, commissioners of surveys and funding agencies will benefit from the practical information provided on how best to use the new technologies that have been developed, as will professionals in the spatial sciences such as geomorphology, ecology and hydrology.




Geostatistics with Applications in Earth Sciences


Book Description

Geostatistics is expanding very fast: concept- and technique-wise. Keeping in view the importance of the subject, it was thought appropriate to bring out the second edition of this book. In this process, Chapter I has been expanded In Chapter 2, incorporating more details on sampling and sampling designs. a section on simulation has been introduced with emphasis on Monte-Carlo simulation with worked out examples. In Chapter 5, a procedure to compute variogram in the case of irregular grid has been outlined. Minor modifications have been made in all other chapters. A new chapter on Introduction to Advanced Geostatistics has been introduced with discussions on universal kriging, disjunctive kriging, conditional simulation and median polish kriging. Review Questions are given at the end of each chapter to facilitate a better understanding of the subject by the student/practitioner. The software codes are put in a CD for convenience of the students/practitoner of geostatistics. A few additions have been made in the bibliography making it more exhaustive. This contains references to the concepts and methods presented, in-depth treatment of related topics and possible extensions. My grateful thanks are due to Dr. B.S. Saini, Principal, Guru Nanak Engg. College, Hyderabad for very helpful support. I hope that this edition will be a welcome one.




Nonparametric Geostatistics


Book Description

The ideas in this book have been developed over the past three or four years while I was working at the Institute of Geological Sciences and later for Golder Associates. During that time all of the geological modelling and resource estimation studies I participated in had data that were non-ideal in one respect or another (or just plain 'dirty'): the standard ways of handling the data with kriging or with simpler parametric methods gave reason able results, but always there were nagging doubts and some lack of confidence because of the corners that had to be cut in generat ing a model. The bimodal distribution that was assumed to be 'close enough' to normal; the pattern of rich and poor zones that was not quite a trend yet made the data very non-stationary; and the many plotted variograms that would not fit any standard model variogram: these all contributed to the feeling that there should be something that statistics could say about the cases where hardly any assumptions could be made about the properties ofthe parent population.




Geological and Geostatistical Aquifer Characterization of Wajid Sandstone, Saudi Arabia


Book Description

The book summarizes research work on the Wajid Sandstone, which provides integrated field and laboratory data to enable a detailed description of this unit including a facies analysis, porosity data, as well as permeability data to establish aquifer models. Detailed facies analysis at outcrop scale are supported by vertical and lateral sedimentological sections, facies and environmental analysis and supplemented by detailed laboratory petrographical and petrophysical data. The analysis and interpretation of the outcrop analog models include the reconstruction of the stratigraphic architecture at outcrop scale. Moreover, the results were described statistically, analyzed and eventually establish an outcrop-based aquifer model analogue. The book benefits undergraduate, graduate and researchers working on applied sedimentological studies, hydrogeology, statistical and geostatistical analysis and modeling.




Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology


Book Description

Geographical Information Systems has moved from the domain of the computer specialist into the wider archaeological community, providing it with an exciting new research method. This clearly written but rigorous book provides a comprehensive guide to that use. Topics covered include: the theoretical context and the basics of GIS; data acquisition including database design; interpolation of elevation models; exploratory data analysis including spatial queries; statistical spatial analysis; map algebra; spatial operations including the calculation of slope and aspect, filtering and erosion modeling; methods for analysing regions; visibility analysis; network analysis including hydrological modeling; the production of high quality output for paper and electronic publication; and the use and production of metadata. Offering an extensive range of archaeological examples, it is an invaluable source of practical information for all archaeologists, whether engaged in cultural resource management or academic research. This is essential reading for both the novice and the advanced user.