Book Title: Interpolation of Spatial Data Some Theory for Kriging

ISBN: 0387986294

Book Author(s): M.L. Stein

Book Publisher: Springer Verlag

Date of Publication: 1 June 1999

Cost: 80 US$

Pages: 264

Url: http://www.springer.com

Description:

Kriging, which is the geostatistical term for optimal linear prediction of spatial processes, is widely used in geology, hydrology, environmental monitoring and other fields to interpolate spatial data. Despite its widespread usage, there is as yet no rigorous theoretical basis for the performance of kriging when some aspect of the dependence structure of the spatial process must be estimated, which is generally the case in practice.

Synthesizing past work of the author with many new results, this monograph proposes using fixed-domain asymptotics, in which one considers an increasing number of observations in a fixed and bounded observation domain, as the best way to study kriging. This approach yields an understanding of the critical relationship between the properties of kriging predictors and the local behavior of the spatial process. In addition, as described in the final chapter, fixed-domain asymptotics provides the potential basis for a theory of kriging with unknown dependence structures that is both mathematically sound and relevant to the practice of kriging.

The mathematical sections of the book require a solid background in probability and statistics at the graduate level and some knowledge of Fourier analysis; however, no prior knowledge of spatial statistics is assumed.