Dataspacing

Calculation of High Resolution Data
Spacing Models
Felipe Cabral Pinto1 and Clayton Deutsch2
1 University of Alberta
2 University of Alberta
Learning Objectives
• Understand the importance of high resolution data spacing models.
• Choose between constant number and constant volume calculations for 2D and 3D cases.
• Appreciate complex sampling configurations.
1 Introduction
Data spacing is the average distance between drill hole data within a volume. Although data spacing
is often linked to regularly sampled and equally spaced drill holes, it can be calculated for any drilling
configuration (Cabral Pinto, 2016; Wilde, 2010).
The calculation of data spacing is straightforward when the drill holes are equally spaced and
drilled perpendicular to the plane of greatest continuity. In the presence of complex or irregular
drilling, the data spacing must be calculated locally. Our recommendation is to calculate the data
spacing for the same block model resolution as used in resource estimation.
Data spacing has been used as a geometric criterion for classification, as a measure of data
availability, and to assess new sampling schemes. This lesson focuses on data spacing calculation
where the spacing must be inferred from limited, regularly or irregularly spaced drilling. This lesson
does not discuss optimal placement of infill drilling.
2 Concept
Considering the observed data density in a particular volume, we define “data spacing” as the equiv‐
alent square spacing for drill holes drilled perpendicular to the plane of greatest continuity. The
calculation of the data spacing accounts for the composite length, irregular drilling directions, and
the orientation of the plane of continuity. Our definition as the equivalent square drill hole spac‐
ing could be modified to a specific rectangular spacing if there is strong anisotropy in the plane of
greatest continuity. The key idea of calculating the data spacing will be to either consider a con‐
stant number of data and find the corresponding volume or consider a constant volume and find
the corresponding number of data. The figure below illustrates data spacing.
3 Calculation
When drill holes are aligned in the same direction, e.g., vertically, and fully intersect the zone of
interest, the calculation of the data spacing (ds) is simplified to a 2D case. The data spacing could
be calculated by either fixing the number of samples to search for n, and calculating the area A(u)
to find them; or by fixing A and calculating n(u). Searching for a fixed number of data appears to be
the most robust.
When searching for data, a circle is used to calculate the area represented by the fixed number
of data. The radius used in the calculation of the area is the average distance of the last data to
GeostatisticsLessons.com ©2017 F. Pinto and C. Deutsch 1

Figure 1: The data spacing at a location u in the presence of complex drilling (left) is the equivalent
spacing ds of regularly spaced drill holes that would give the same observed data density (right).
Figure 2: Search schema illustration of the 2‐D data spacing calculation. Given the number of data
to search, n (n=8 in the illustration), the average radius r(u) is used to calculate the area A(u) (left).
search rn(u) and the next nearest data rn+1(u). Additional practical details including the number of
drill holes will be discussed below.
The calculation of the data spacing for 3D cases are often set up to consider a constant volume
V, the composite length c, and the number of samples n(u) falling inside the volume. The volume
could be an ellipsoid or a rectangular parallelepiped. The figure below shows a cube. The composite
length is included to define the equivalent regular drill hole spacing. The data spacing is taken as
the square spacing perpendicular to the plane of continuity that would give the same number of
samples, n(u), as actually found. Practice has shown that using a volume 2 to 3 times the data
spacing leads to reasonably stable results.
A Note on Data Density

Data density measures the number of data inside a reference volume. Data density is high if many
data fall within a small volume and low if a large volume contains few data. Data density is an
alternative to data spacing. For example, the number of drill holes per section is sometimes used
in oil sands projects.

Figure 3: Determination of the data spacing for irregularly spaced drilling in three dimensions ac‐
counting for the composite length.
4 Practical Considerations
Some practical considerations on data spacing involve parameter selection and limitation of the
area and volume.
Fixed Parameters
When choosing the parameters for data spacing calculation, the local neighbourhood must be large
enough for stable estimates and to avoid artefacts near individual drill holes. The neighbourhood
must be small enough to precisely identify transitions between areas of different spacing.
There is no theoretically correct number of samples. The result should appear reasonable and
free of visual artefacts. The neighbourhood must be large enough to calculate the data spacing in
sparsely sampled areas. For this reason the ideal search for data spacing may not coincide with the
optimal kriging search ellipsoid.
Multiple Parameters
The number of data in 2D calculation and the volume in 3D calculation are parameters that must be
chosen. In practice, the calculation of the data spacing with a single parameter, a fixed n or V, tends
to be noisy for a few number of data or too small volume, and over smooth and locally less accurate
for a great amount of data or too large volume. One approach is to consider multiple n and V values
at each location and take the average of the resulting data spacing values (Silva & Boisvert, 2014).
Practice has shown that the average of the values using n between 4 to 10 works well.
Depth and Aerial Limits

The data spacing could be used to clip a resulting estimated model. Blocks considered to be too
far away from the data can be reset as unestimated. Moreover, the data spacing could be used
to classify the blocks into measured, indicated and inferred resources. Extrapolation of the data
spacing at depth and aerially beyond the data may be undesirable.
In some cases the depth of data spacing calculation is limited to the depth reached by nearby
drill holes (Wilde & Deutsch, 2011). In addition to depth limits, aerial limits can be calculated using

Figure 4: The parameters used in the data spacing calculation must be chosen to properly account
for the data configuration and avoid excessive smoothing of the calculated spacing in transition
zones.
Figure 5: Multiple parameters approach demonstrated in a 2D case varying n (8 to 10 in the figure).

Similar approach is considered for 3D calculation, varying the volume.

Figure 6: A 2D convex hull used to limit the data spacing calculation area, avoiding extrapolation.
a convex hull. The data spacing calculation could be limited to locations within the convex hull. The
decision to extrapolate or not would be made on a case‐by‐case basis depending on understanding
of the geological continuity.
5 Summary
A high resolution data spacing model has many applications. The calculations are relatively simple,
although care must be taken when choosing the parameters. Best practices involve fixing n and
calculate A(u) in 2D, and fixing V and calculating n(u) in 3D cases. When choosing n or V, they
should be small enough for local precision and large enough for a smooth, but not over smooth,
data spacing calculation.
The idea behind data spacing is to calculate the equivalent regular drill hole spacing that would
give the same amount of data. The results should be precise yet free of artefacts.
6 References
Cabral Pinto, F. A. (2016). Advances in data spacing and uncertainty (Master’s thesis). University
of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Silva, D. S. F., & Boisvert, J. B. (2014). Two new tools: Directional survey to GSLIB XYZ format and
drill hole spacing. CCG Annual Report 16, Paper 404.
Wilde, B. J. (2010). Data spacing and uncertainty (Master’s thesis). University of Alberta, Ed‐
monton, Alberta, Canada.
Wilde, B. J., & Deutsch, C. V. (2011). Updated program for determining data spacing. CCG Annual
Report 13, Paper 407.

Citation
Cabral Pinto, F. A. and Deutsch, C. V. (2017). Calculation of High Resolution Data Spacing Models. In
J. L. Deutsch (Ed.), Geostatistics Lessons. Retrieved from
http://geostatisticslessons.com/lessons/dataspacing

Dataspacing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Dataspacing

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Dataspacing

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Calculation of High Resolution Data

GeostatisticsLessons.com ©2017 F. Pinto and C. Deutsch 1

A Note on Data Density

GeostatisticsLessons.com ©2017 F. Pinto and C. Deutsch 2

Depth and Aerial Limits

GeostatisticsLessons.com ©2017 F. Pinto and C. Deutsch 3

Figure 5: Multiple parameters approach demonstrated in a 2D case varying n (8 to 10 in the figure).

GeostatisticsLessons.com ©2017 F. Pinto and C. Deutsch 4

GeostatisticsLessons.com ©2017 F. Pinto and C. Deutsch 5

GeostatisticsLessons.com ©2017 F. Pinto and C. Deutsch 6

You might also like