Data Management
It takes significant time to understand the geological setting, the data, the study objectives and ensure that the modeling workflow is designed to meet those objectives. we must manage data with different and inconsistent format, missing data, different vintages of data, different companies involved and so on. Preparing the site specific data takes significant time. Sufficient time must be allocated to sort out the study objectives, site specific data, analogue data and a conceptual understanding of the site.
Most geostatistical studies are repeated as more data become available or the objectives change. It is rare that a particular geostatistical study is the first analysis of brand new data for a site that has never been modeled before. Best practice is to assemble and review all relevant prior work such as reports, maps, models, and data files. Contact (or attempt to contact) those that have studied the site in the past to avoid making preventable mistakes and to address improvements that previous studies never had the time, data or resources to address. These lessons focus on data preparation, management of uncertainty in data and the integration of multiple data types.