The papers in this volume provide a comprehensive account of the current methods and work in geostatistics, including recent theoretical developments and applications. Topics featured include: stochastic simulations, space-time modelling, and Bayesian framework.

The return of the congress to North America after 20 years of absence could not have been in a more ideal location. The beauty of Banff and the many offerings of the Rocky Mountains was the perfect background for a week of interesting and innovative discussions on the past, present and future of geostatistics. The congress was well attended with approximately 200 delegates from 19 countries across six continents. There was a broad spectrum of students and seasoned geostatisticians who shared their knowledge in many areas of study including mining, petroleum, and environmental applications. You will find 119 papers in this two volume set. All papers were presented at the congress and have been peer-reviewed. They are grouped by the different sessions that were held in Banff and are in the order of presentation. These papers provide a permanent record of different theoretical perspectives from the last four years. Not all of these ideas will stand the test of time and practice; however, their originality will endure. The practical applications in these proceedings provide nuggets of wisdom to those struggling to apply geostatistics in the best possible way. Students and practitioners will be digging through these papers for many years to come. Oy Leuangthong Clayton V. Deutsch ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank the industry sponsors who contributed generously to the overall success and quality of the congress: De Beers Canada Earth Decision Sciences Maptek Chile Ltda. Mira Geoscience Nexen Inc. Petro-Canada Placer Dome Inc.

Geostatistics Rio 2000 includes fifteen contributions, five of which are on applications in petroleum science and ten are on mining geostatistics. These contributions were presented at the 31st International Geological Congress, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 6-17 August, 2000. Stochastic simulation was the key theme of these case studies. A wide range of methods was used: truncated gaussian and plurigaussian, SIS and SGS, boolean methods and multi-point attractors. Audience: The volume will be of value to scientists, researchers, and professionals in geology, mining engineering, petroleum engineering, mathematics and statistics, as well as those working for mining and oil companies.

This volume contains the proceedings of the twelfth conference of the Euro pean Consortium for Mathematics in Industry. ECMI was founded in 1986 in to foster research and education in Mathematics in Industry in Europe order and these biannual conferences are the show case for ECMI's research. It is a pleasure to see that six of the plenary speakers have submitted papers for this volume. Their contributions illustrate the breadth of applica tions and the variety of mathematical and computational techniques that are embraced by ECMI. ECMI is also committed to the education of students and it is encouraging that a number of the papers are given by students. The Wacker Prize, which is offered for a Masters Level thesis on an industrial problem, always attracts excellent entries and this year's winner, Nicole Marheineke, is no exception. This is the first time that an ECMI conference has been held in Eastern Europe and the ECMI Council is very grateful to Professor Andris Buikis and his colleagues in Latvia and Lithuania for the excellent job they have done. Thanks too go to the European Union which supported 30 delegates at this conference via TMR Contract No ERBFMRXCT 97-0117 'Differential Equations in Industry and Commerce'. The final meeting of this network was held during this conference which provided a platform for network members to describe their work to a wider audience.

Geostatistics is a branch of spatial statistics that was originally developed for the mining industry. The technique is now widely recognised as an important tool for the estimation of the abundance and distribution of natural resources. However, new developments have been required to extend its application to fisheries science, particularly in variogram estimation. This important new title describes the fundamentals of geostatistics in terms more familiar to life-scientists, and uses case studies on seven commercially important fish stocks to demonstrate its application to fisheries survey data. Comprehensive and practical advice is given on how this new method can be used to estimate the abundance (with an appropriate measure of precision) of fish stocks worldwide. Geostatistics for Estimating Fish Abundance will be of vital interest to fisheries research scientists, marine biologists, oceanographers, marine and fish ecologists, environmental scientists and experts involved in the assessment of natural animal resources. The book has been developed as a result of studies carried out by a collaborative team of international researchers expert in this area with financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, AIR specific RTD programme. J. Rivoirard and N. Bez are at the Centre de Géostatistique de Fontainebleau, Ecole des Mines de Paris, France, J. Simmonds and P. Fernandes are at the FRS Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, UK and K. Foote is at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway and at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA.

In order to understand fluid flows in underground porous formations, engineers need to produce models, in the form of grid systems populated with physical properties such as permeability and porosity. This procedure is of crucial importance but it is also problematic. It is crucially important in determining where and how fluids flow; reservoir or aquifer modeling is used to plan field development, optimize oil production with the judicious selection of well locations, assess contaminant migration, design capture zones, and so on. It is problematic, because there is never enough data available to describe with certainty the spatial distribution of permeability and porosity on a given scale. Given the complex heterogeneity of natural porous media, the fundamental question is: how can this reality be incorporated in models? This textbook refers to geostatistics and optimization to review the whole workflow for modern reservoir characterization and to provide an original solution. A CD-ROM with a software called GO is supplied with this book. It provides tools to answer the illustrative exercises proposed and to help the reader to develop intuitive understanding. This book is written at a comprehensible level for students who have had calculus, linear algebra and some exposure to differential equations. It should also serve already-practicing engineers in oil reservoirs, environment and hydrology.