Course Description

This two-day course will aim to teach the fundamentals of geostatistics in the context of environmental and hydrogeological applications. Geostatistics offers practical approaches to addressing the impact of spatial variability of subsurface properties such as permeability, lithology, or concentration. Specific topics will include:

• Modeling spatial variability, with emphasis on understanding the meaning of parameters that prescribe variogram, covariance, and correlation models.
• Use of various forms of kriging and cokriging as mapping tools and estimates of uncertainty - which form is best for specific applications.
• Application of geostatistical simulation algorithms to stochastic simulation of continuous and categorical properties, particularly permeability and hydrofacies spatial distributions.

The course will mix theory and application by integrating working examples into the teaching of the geostatistical techniques. Theory will be presented with a goal of enhancing understanding of how to correctly apply geostatistical methods. Prior exposure to basic statistics and linear algebra is recommended, but not required. In advance of the course, students are encouraged to donate trial data sets to use as instructive example applications.

• In submitting data sets for instructional use, please follow these formatting instructions (pdf file)

The instructor will demonstrate geostatistics applications with GSLIB (public domain software). This will not be a software training course, rather, the emphasis will be on acquiring working knowledge, conceptual understanding, and awareness of both the usefulness and limitations of geostatistical methods in environmental and hydrogeological applications.

Learning Objectives and Benefits

• Awareness of types of problems that could benefit from use of geostatistics.
• Ability to choose appropriate geostatistical methods.
• Understanding of geostatistical models and parameters.
• Insight needed to use geostatistical software.

Course Instructor

Dr. Steven F. Carle works in the Subsurface Flow and Transport Group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Engineering Geoscience from the University of California Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Hydrologic Science from the University of California Davis. He has 2 years work experience in Environmental Consulting. For the past ten years, Dr. Carle has been developing and applying geostatistical methods throughout his work on a variety of hydrogeological problems, such as subsurface characterization, interpretation of multi-well pumping tests, and risk analysis for heterogeneous aquifer systems.

Geostatistics Course Topics

Introduction        Instructor Background        History of Geostatistics        Course Goals Survey of Applications        Quantification of Spatial Variability & Estimation Uncertainty        2- and 3-D Mapping & Estimation        Simulation               Permeability, Porosity, etc.               Categories, e.g. Hydrofacies, Concentration Ranges        Flow & Transport               Hydrogeology               Petroleum Reservoir Simulation Basic Statistics        Distributions, e.g. normal and log normal        Mean, Variance, Covariance Spatial Statistics        Spatial Covariance        Variogram        Correlation        Cross-Covariance Estimation        Kriging - Simple and Ordinary        Block Kriging        Cokriging        Estimation Uncertainty Simulation of Continuous Random Fields        Sequential Gaussian Simulation (sgs)        LU-Decomposition        Turning Bands Indicator Methods        Spatial Variability               Indicator Variograms               Transition Probability        Estimation               Indicator Kriging               Indicator Cokriging        Simulation               Sequential Indicator Simulation (sis)               Transition Probability Approaches Hydrogeological Applications        Flow Simulation in Heterogeneous Aquifer Systems        Monte Carlo/Stochastic Approaches to Transport Simulation References

The two-day course will be held on July 31 and August 1, 2001 at San Jose State Jose University in San Jose California (click for location details). For more information, contact Donna Geyen at the GRA office, (916) 446-3626 or email at dgeyen@nossaman.com.

Cooperating Organizations

The Groundwater Resources Association Geostatistics course is being conducted in cooperation with the International Association of Hydrogeologists and the Association of Engineering Geologists.