Introducing geostatistics from a multivariate perspective is the main aim of this book. The idea took root while teaching geostatistics at the Centre de Geostatis tique (Ecole des Mines de Paris) over the past ten years in the two postgraduate programs DEA and CFSG. A first script of lecture notes in French originated from this activity. A specialized course on Multivariate and Exploratory Geostatistics held in September 1993 in Paris (organized in collaboration with the Department of Statistics of Trinity College Dublin) was the occasion to test some of the mate rial on a pluridisciplinary audience. Another important opportunity arose last year when giving a lecture on Spatial Statistics during the summer term at the Department of Statistics of the University of Washington at Seattle, where part of this manuscript was distributed in an early version. Short accounts were also given during COMETT and TEMPUS courses on geostatistics for environment al studies in Fontainebleau, Freiberg, Rome and Prague, which were sponsored by the European Community. I wish to thank the participants of these various courses for their stimulating questions and comments. Among the organizers of these courses, I particularly want to acknowledge the support received from Georges Matheron, Pierre Chau vet, Margaret Armstrong, John Haslett and Paul Sampson. Michel Grzebyk has made valuable comments on Chapters 26 and 27, which partly summarize some of his contributions to the field.weiterlesen