Geostatistics workshop - Girona
by Jasper Dekkers
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On Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 November 2005, Unigis Spain organised the
geostatistics workshop. They invited Konstantin Krivoruchko, a spatial statistics expert and currently
leading ESRI´s Geostatistical Analyst software development team, to give lectures and practicals on geostatistics.
There was big interest in this workshop, but only room for 20 to 30 students. The subject was quite difficult to grasp,
but Dr. Krivoruchko did his best to help us get a grip on the material.
There was a relatively large Dutch Unigis-group present, consisting of three students and four staff members. Present from
Unigis Amsterdam were: Students Arianne Immink and Yves Martens from the Netherlands and Sergio Loddo from Sardinia, Italy.
Staff members attending were Eduardo Dias, Willem Loonen and Jasper Dekkers. Also, Eric Koomen was there, temporarily residing
in Girona at the time.
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We learned a lot about kriging, a particular geostatistical technique. As the brochure of the
workshop also explains 'Geostatistics is a series of modeling tools that use data collected at known locations to predict what
might be at locations where no data are available. To do this successfully it needs data that are spatially correlated and stationary.
To test the assumptions of spatial data dependency and stationarity, the statistical analysis must begin with exploration of the
data. Having explored the spatial data, modeling tools can then be used more efficiently. With dependent, stationary data, statistical
models will work, but a model only approximates reality and uses data that inevitably have errors that are compounded by the
modeling itself. So there are three tasks— to know how much error already exists, to make sure the model is not adding too much error,
and to know how much error is too much.'
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Off course, next to the lectures and practicals, the social part of the workshop was also very
enjoyable. We visited multiple nice bars and restaurants. The Spanish and Catalonian food both are very nice we know now!
Girona also is a very beautiful city to visit. It's old buildings are well-conserved, some even from before the year 1000 AD. It's Cathedral
has the widest nave without extra pillars to hold the weight of the roof in the world, except for the Basilica of Saint Peter. That one's nave
is three meters wider. Also very nice to visit are the Arab baths, an old bathhouse.
Should you be given the opportunity to visit Girona, do not hesitate to go there! It's non-touristic, the people are very friendly, and
of course, you can visit the university to meet and greet the people of Unigis Girona.
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