Regionalized variable theory (RVT) is a
geostatistical
Geostatistics is a branch of statistics focusing on spatial or spatiotemporal datasets. Developed originally to predict probability distributions of ore grades for mining operations, it is currently applied in diverse disciplines including petro ...
method used for
interpolation
In the mathematics, mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points.
In engineering and science, one ...
in space.
The concept of the theory is that interpolation from points in space should not be based on a smooth continuous object. It should be, however, based on a
stochastic Stochastic (; ) is the property of being well-described by a random probability distribution. ''Stochasticity'' and ''randomness'' are technically distinct concepts: the former refers to a modeling approach, while the latter describes phenomena; i ...
model that takes into consideration the various trends in the original set of points. The theory considers that within any dataset, three types of relationships can be detected:
#Structural part, which is also called the trend.
#Correlated variation.
#Uncorrelated variation, or noise.
After defining the above three relationships, RVT then applies the
first law of geography, in order to predict the unknown values of points. The major application of this theory is the
Kriging
In statistics, originally in geostatistics, kriging or Kriging (), also known as Gaussian process regression, is a method of interpolation based on Gaussian process governed by prior covariances. Under suitable assumptions of the prior, kriging g ...
method for interpolation.
References
* David, MICHEL, ed. (1977-01-01), "Chapter 5 - Theoretical Basis of the Approach: The Theory of Regionalized Variables", Developments in Geomathematics, Geostatistical Ore Reserve Estimation, Elsevier, vol.2, pp. 91–114, retrieved 2022-01-23
Interpolation
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