geostatistilisi

Geostatistical methods are a set of statistical techniques used to analyze and model spatially correlated data. This means that the values of a variable at one location are related to the values at nearby locations. Geostatistics originated in the field of mining engineering to estimate ore grades, but its applications have since expanded to diverse fields such as environmental science, hydrology, geology, agriculture, and epidemiology.

The core concept in geostatistics is spatial autocorrelation, the statistical relationship between the values of a variable at different locations. This relationship is typically quantified using a variogram, which describes how the difference between values increases with distance. Based on the variogram, geostatistical techniques can then be used for interpolation, which is the process of estimating the value of a variable at unsampled locations.

Kriging is a widely used geostatistical interpolation method that provides optimal linear unbiased estimates. It considers the spatial structure of the data, as defined by the variogram, to assign weights to known data points. Different types of kriging exist, such as ordinary kriging, simple kriging, and universal kriging, each making different assumptions about the data's mean. Beyond interpolation, geostatistics is also employed for spatial simulation, uncertainty assessment, and spatial sampling design.