A comparison between Markov approximations and other methods for large spatial data sets

David Bolin and Finn Lindgren

Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 2013, vol. 61, issue C, 7-21

Abstract: The Matérn covariance function is a popular choice for modeling dependence in spatial environmental data. Standard Matérn covariance models are, however, often computationally infeasible for large data sets. Recent results for Markov approximations of Gaussian Matérn fields based on Hilbert space approximations are extended using wavelet basis functions. Using a simulation-based study, these Markov approximations are compared with two of the most popular methods for computationally efficient model approximations, covariance tapering and the process convolution method. The methods are compared with respect to their computational properties when used for spatial prediction (kriging), and the results show that, for a given computational cost, the Markov methods have a substantial gain in accuracy compared with the other methods.

Keywords: Matérn covariances; Kriging; Wavelets; Markov random fields; Covariance tapering; Process convolutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167947312004021
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:csdana:v:61:y:2013:i:c:p:7-21

DOI: 10.1016/j.csda.2012.11.011

Access Statistics for this article

Computational Statistics & Data Analysis is currently edited by S.P. Azen

More articles in Computational Statistics & Data Analysis from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().