Concepts and Methods of Geostatistics

Abstract

A mathematician but also an engineer, Professor Georges Matheron has shown an exceptional ability to formalize practical problems, edict relevant concepts and methods in order to find workable solutions. From 1954 to 1963, while working with the French Geological Survey in Algeria and in France, he discovered the pioneering work of the South African school on the gold deposits of the Witwatersrand, and formalized the major concepts of the theory that he named Geostatistics. The “classical” geostatistics (linear geostatistics based on stationary covariance and variogram) was fully developed in his thesis [11]. The regionalized variable under study, as Matheron called it, is then conveniently modelled as a Random Function. However one should not consider the model as the reality, and the analysis of the role to be assigned to the model led Matheron to write “Estimating and Choosing”, an essay on probability in practice ([18] for the French version, [20] in English). In the mean time, the bases of both non-linear geostatistics and non-stationary geostatistics were laid out. The reader will find a detailed description of the different geostatistical methods, as well as a valuable bibliography, in the reference book by Chilès and Delfiner [1]. The present article describes the basic concepts of geostatistics, from today’s perspective.