Automatic mapping algorithms for routine and emergency monitoring data : spatial interpolation comparison 2004

The Spatial Interpolation Comparison (SIC) 2004 exercise was organised during the summer 2004 within the frame of the activities of the Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring (REM) group of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. Its purpose was to assess the current know-how in the field of "automatic" or "real-time" mapping. The underlying idea was to explore the way algorithms designed for spatial interpolation can automatically generate maps on the basis of information collected regularly by monitoring networks, this in situation of routine or emergencies. This EU report presents a collection of essays written by experts in the field of geostatistics and machine learning about the results obtained by the researchers who participated to SIC 2004. The report should provide the reader with a useful overview of the current state of the art in the field of automatic mapping of environmental variables.