Dear all,

For those interested, I have asked Gregoire to put the paper that Edzer
refers to on the ai-geostats documents section.

It was written in a time that the kriging variance was heavily attacked.
We felt the need to react to the biased views expressed at the time.

One interesting outcome of the paper is that it is not necessarily a
good thing to let the measure for interpolation accuracy strongly depend
on the degree of local spatial variation. Apparently, one can be too
'data-charged'!

As usual, I agree with everything that Edzer writes.

Gerard

Gerard B.M. Heuvelink
Environmental Sciences Group
Wageningen University and Research Centre
P.O. Box 47
6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands

tel +31 317 474628 / 485208
email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.sil.wur.nl/UK/

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Edzer J. Pebesma
Sent: vrijdag 29 september 2006 17:13
To: Gustavo G. Pilger
Cc: Kerry Ritter; ai-geostats@jrc.it
Subject: Re: AI-GEOSTATS: kriging variance and accuracy

Dear Kerry and Gustavo,

The kriging variance is a perfect measure for estimation uncertainty as 
long as a second order stationary model is a good representation of the 
data under study. Obviously, if variability and/or spatial correlation 
varies over the field of interest and you have sufficient data to 
characterize this, or e.g. do a non-linear transform such as a 
log-transform to correct for a proportional effect, than you can and 
will do better when taking this into account.

In my opinion papers such as those by Journel and Rossi have 
over-shouted their point, and have ignored that for many cases a second 
order stationary random field is a suitable model, if not the only
possible.

The argument that after rejecting the kriging variance, conditional 
simulation is suddenly needed as the solution get some measure of 
uncertainty is invalid: if you create a large enough set of conditional 
Gaussian simulations, their mean value equals the kriging mean and their

variance equals the kriging variance. Nothing is gained, only an 
expensive approximation of something rather cheap is obtained.

You will not find many papers that make this point, as the only point is

that someone else is wrong. Not many people like to write such stuff. 
Below is a reference that may be hard to get (but you can google for the

first author). I for instance didn't enjoy writing this email.

Best regards,
--
Edzer

Heuvelink, G.B.M. and E.J. Pebesma, 2002, Is the ordinary kriging 
variance a proper measure of interpolation error? In: Proceedings of the

fifth International Symposium on Spatial Accuracy Assessment in Natural 
Resources and Environmental Sciences (eds. G. Hunter and K. Lowell). 
Melbourne: RMIT University, 179-186.

Gustavo G. Pilger wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Indeed the kriging variance is only semi-variogram and spatial data 
> configuration dependent. The kriging variance is calculated taking 
> into account only the geometry of the samples, i.e. their spatial 
> arrangement and the semi-variogram. Basically, kriging variance do not

> take into account the value of the samples, but only their location 
> (and the semi-variogram), consequently ignoring the local variability.

> Therefore this parameter is not appropriate to measure uncertainty. 
> For this purpose you should consider the use of conditional simulation

> methods.
>
> I wrote some papers about this subject some years ago. For exemple:
>
> PILGER, Gustavo G.; COSTA, Joao Felipe Coimbra Leite; KOPPE, Jair 
> Carlos, 2001.  Additional Samples: Where they Should be Located?. 
> Natural Resources Research, New York, v. 10, n. 3, p. 197-207.
>
> I can send you a copy if you wish.
>
> I hope this helps you.
>
> Cheers.
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> Gustavo G. Pilger, Mining Engineer, MSc, PhD
> Senior Geostatistician
> MBR - Brazil
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
>
>
>
>> Hi.  I just read through Journel and Rossi's 1999 paper, "When do we
>> need a trend model in Kriging".  In the appendix they say "A kriging
>> variance is but a variogram-model dependent ranking of data
>> configurations; being data-value  independent, it is generally not a
>> measure of local accuracy...This fact is unfortunately not yet fully
>> appreciated by some practitioners".  Can someone explain the
>> implications of this in terms of determining cost-efficiency analysis
>> for sample designs?  Specifically, can we use kriging variance
>> estimates across potential sampling grids, (from modeled variograms
>> estimated from say a pilot study) to estimate the variability
>> associated with different sampling densities/configurations.  In
>> addition, can someone provide some references that address this
topic.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Kerry
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