WHICH MODELS FOR COLLOCATED COKRIGING?

Abstract

When a target variable is sparsely sampled, compared to a densely sampled auxiliary variable, cokriging requires simplifications. In its strict sense, collocated cokriging makes use of the auxiliary variable only at the current point where the target variable is to be estimated; in the multicollocated form, it also makes use of the auxiliary variable at all points where the target variable is available. This paper looks for the models that support these collocated cokrigings, i.e., the models in which the simplification resulting from the collocated forms does not result in any loss of information. In these models, the cross-structure between the two variables is shown to be proportional to the structure of the auxiliary variable, not to the structure of the target variable as is often assumed (except, of course, when all structures are proportional). The target variable depends on the auxiliary variable and on a spatially uncorrelated residual. Collocated cokriging simplifies to the simple method, which consists in kriging this residual. The strictly collocated cokriging corresponds to the particular case where the residual has a pure nugget structure, but it is then reduced to the single regression at the target point. Except for this trivial case, there are no models in which strictly collocated cokriging is exactly a cokriging.