Preface

This book is not an introduction to geostatistics and its theory. Although some
elements of geostatistics theory are recalled, the text assumes a reasonable level of
familiarity with the main concepts of geostatistics: notions of a random function,
stationarity or variogram should not leave you wondering.
The main purpose of this book is to back up the Stanford Geostatistical Modeling
Software (SGeMS) and, hopefully, widen the readers comprehension of geostatis-
tics beyond its theory into its very diverse applications. In that perspective, the
emphasis is on practical aspects (in what context should one tool be preferred over
another one) and implementation considerations (to what extent do the algorithm
implementations deviate from the theory, what are the assumptions and limitations
of the implementation). However, this book is not a reference manual to program-
ming in SGeMS and no details about the source code of SGeMS or its APIs are
given. If you are interested in learning how to contribute code to SGeMS please
refer to the SGeMS web site, http://sgems.sourceforge.net, where a
description of the SGeMS APIs and several tutorials are available.
The geostatistics tools of SGeMS were designed to provide enough exibility
to adapt to very different problems. As a result, the number of available control
parameters may seem daunting to the novice practitioner. Dont be intimidated!
Most of the advanced parameters have default values, and the best way to build
up your understanding of those parameters is to repeat the example runs and
experiment on your own.
While most of the tools in SGeMS are based on classical geostatistics (krig-
ing, Gaussian simulation, indicator simulation, etc.), a large portion of the book
is devoted to the concept of multiple-points statistics. Multiple-points statistics
being a new and promising area of geostatistics, its underlying theory is exposed
in greater detail, and two multiple-point algorithms are thoroughly described.
This book has had a long gestation. The idea of a generic geostatistics pro-
gramming library (the GsTL library), accompanied by a simple showcase software

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dates back to 2001 and was started with the collaboration of Professor Arben

Schtuka, then at Ecole Nationale Superieure de Geologie (France), and the support
of Professor Jef Caers at Stanford University. What was supposed to be a sim-
ple software, however, turned into a very involved programming effort. SGeMS
is now a full edged software that provides a modern, convenient and powerful
platform for new developments of geostatistics. Thanks to the support of Jef Caers
and Andre Journel, the SGeMS software gained traction at the Stanford Center for
Reservoir Forecasting (SCRF), then with its industrial afliates and collaborating
universities.
This book wouldnt have existed without the support of Andre Journel, his
untiring cheer-leading, dedicated supervision and his obsessive proof-reading. We
are also very grateful to Dr. Mohan Srivastava, Dr. Ricardo Olea and Dr. Pierre
Goovaerts who carefully reviewed the early drafts of the manuscript and meticu-
lously tracked the inconsistencies and many bugs of the software. The text and
software greatly beneted from their many suggestions and remarks. We would
like to thank Dr. Sebastien Strebelle, Professor Sanjay Srinivasan and Professor
Guillaume Caumon, who carefully reviewed the nal versions of the manuscript.
Finally, we are very grateful to Professor Jef Caers for initiating and strongly
believing in the GsTL project: without his support, SGeMS wouldnt have been
written.
By design, SGeMS is not a static and complete software. New algorithms
will be added, and its underlying API may change. We welcome comments on
it, reports of bugs, valuable enhancement ideas or source code. You can send
comments to the SGeMS mailing-lists and refer to the SGeMS web site at
http://sgems.sourceforge.net for updates and code documentation.