On the choice of the mesh for the analysis of geostatistical data using R-INLA

Abstract

Many methods used in spatial statistics are computationally demanding, and so, the development of more computationally efficient methods has received attention. A important development is the integrated nested Laplace approximation method which is carry out Bayesian analysis more efficiently This method, for geostatistical data, is done considering the SPDE approach that requires the creation of a mesh overlying the study area and all the obtained results depend on it. The impact of the mesh on inference and prediction is investigated through simulations. As there is no formal procedure to specify it, we investigate a guideline to create an optimal mesh.

Keywords:

• Geostatistics
• integrated nested Laplace approximation
• mesh
• stochastic partial differential equation

Acknowledgements

The first author acknowledge the financial support of the “Ciência sem Fronteiras” program of CNPq (Brazil) under the process number 200573/2015-2. Support from the IAP Research Network P7/06 of the Belgian State (Belgian Science Policy) is also gratefully acknowledged by the second and third author.