5.1 This guide is intended to encourage consistency and thoroughness in the reporting of geostatistical site investigations by describing the basic information required in a complete report.

5.2 Referring to the table of contents suggested in Table 1, this guide may be used as a template by those preparing reports or as a checklist for review and auditing purposes by qualified nonparticipants in the study.

1.1 This guide covers the contents required for a complete report of a geostatistical site investigation. A complete report is understood here to be one that contains all the information necessary to the understanding and evaluation of the geostatistical site investigation by other geostatisticians.

1.2 This guide does not discuss the reporting of supplementary information that may assist evaluation of the report.

1.3 While geostatistical methods are used in many fields, this guide is primarily intended for the reporting of environmental and geotechnical applications.

1.4 The basic geostatistical methods referred to in this guide are fully described in texts by David (1),2 Journel and Huijbregts (2), Clark (3), and Isaaks and Srivastava (4). Olea (5) gives a thorough compilation of geostatistical terminology as well as (6) a practical description of the subject for engineers and earth scientists. Chiles (7) and Goovaerts (8) provide material on how to deal with spatial uncertainty and how to use geostatistics for the evaluation of natural resources.

1.5 This guide does not discuss the reporting of multivariate, space-time, and other less-frequently used geostatistical methods; however this is not intended to reflect any judgment as to the validity of these methods.

1.6 Geostatistics is but one approach that can be used to understand and describe site conditions. Investigations should incorporate whatever supplementary knowledge of the site that may be available from other sources. As with classical statistical approaches, geostatistics is not intended to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

1.7 This guide offers an organized collection of information or a series of options and does not recommend a specific course of action. This document cannot replace education or experience and should be used in conjunction with professional judgment. Not all aspects of this guide may be applicable in all circumstances. This ASTM standard is not intended to represent or replace the standard of care by which the adequacy of a given professional service must be judged, nor should this document be applied without consideration of a project's many unique aspects. The word “Standard” in the title of this document means only that the document has been approved through the ASTM consensus process.

1.8 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.