Geostatistics

Objectives

The objective of this course is to teach the students the basic concepts of standard geostatistics. Students will learn, in the course, the main theoretical concepts related to the spatial interpolation of attributes using geostatistics. The students will also work on computer programs to practice the theoretical concepts. The course is developed with theoretical classes, under the professor responsibility, and also with practical laboratories that the student must run out of the theoretical class time. Following the theoretical classes there are some exercises that the student must work on and report the answers to the professor. During the course the students must work, also, in one sample set of interest with the geostatistics concepts and techniques and present to the professor, as well as to the other students, their work results. Finally, the students must write reports about these results.

General characterization

Code

200064

Credits

7.5

Responsible teacher

Hours

Weekly - Available soon

Total - Available soon

Teaching language

Portuguese. If there are Erasmus students, classes will be taught in English

Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Bibliography

Goovaerts, P., 1997. Geostatistics for Natural Resources Evaluation. Oxford University Press, Inc, New York, USA.; Isaaks, E. H.; Srivastava, R. M., 1989. An Introduction to Applied Geostatistics. Oxford University Press, Inc, New York, USA.; Deutsch, C. V.; Journel, A. G., 1998. Geostatistical Software Library and User’s Guide. Oxford University Press, New York, USA.; Soares, A. 2000. Geoestatística para as Ciências da Terra e do Ambiente. Instituto Superior de Técnico, IST Press. Lisboa, Portugal.; Tutorials, e-books and other material provided by the teacher.

Teaching method

The curricular unit is based on theoretical lectures and practical application of methods using software applications, such as Excel and ArcGIS. The practical component is geared towards solving problems and exercises, including discussion and interpretation of results. A variety of instructional strategies will be applied, including lectures, slide show demonstrations, step-by-step instructions on using the Geostatistical Analyst functionality of the ArcGIS software, questions and answers.

Evaluation method

In-course assessment:
1. Three individual reports with the answers to the proposed problems (10% of final grade each);
2. Exam (25% of final grade)
3. Oral presentation of the students' project (10% of final grade);
4. Article reporting the work done related to the project (35% of final grade).
The project can be developed individually or in groups of 2 students.

Subject matter

1. Introduction
   1.1. Initial concepts and motivation
2. Exploratory data analysis
   2.1. Univariate description
   2.2. Bivariate description
   2.3. Spatial description
3. Deterministic methods for spatial interpolation
   3.1. General concepts
   3.2. Thiessen polygons (Voronoi maps)
   3.3. Inverse distance weighting
   3.4. Validation and cross-validation
4. Variography
   4.1. Spatial continuity analysis
   4.2. Models of spatial continuity
5. Univariate geostatistics
   5.1. Geostatistics estimation concepts
   5.2. Simple kriging
   5.3. Universal kriging
   5.4. Ordinary kriging
6. Multivariate geostatistics
   6.1. Bivariate spatial description
   6.2. Modelling a coregionalization
   6.3. Simple kriging with varying local means
   6.4. Kriging with an external drift
   6.5. Cokriging and collocated cokriging

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: