This paper introduces the gstat package for the S language (R, S-PLUS). The package provides multivariable geostatistical modelling, prediction and simulation, as well as several visualisation functions. Gstat (http://www. gstat.org) was started 10 years ago and was released under the GPL in 1996; it is closely linked to several GIS systems. It was not initially written for teaching purposes, but for research purposes, emphasizing flexibility, scalability and portability. It can deal with a large number of practical issues in geostatistics, including change of support (block kriging), simple/ordinary/universal (co)kriging, fast local neighbourhood selection, flexible trend modelling, variables with different sampling configurations, and efficient simulation of large spatially correlated random fields, indicator kriging and simulation, and (directional) variogram and cross variogram modelling. The formula/models interface is used to define multivariable geostatistical models. This paper presents the functionality provided by the gstat S package, discusses a number of design and implementation issues, and advantages and shortcomings of the S environment for multivariable geostatistics.
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