Geostatistical integration of seismic velocity and resistivity data for probabilistic evaluation of rock quality

This study applied a geostatistical approach to integrate various geophysical results for the probabilistic evaluation of rock quality designation (RQD) in regions between boreholes. Two of the geophysical survey results, electrical resistivity and seismic velocity, were transformed into a probabilistic distribution with the directly observed RQD values at the boreholes using an indicator value method. The initial spatial distribution of RQD, inferred from indicator kriging of observations from the boreholes, was improved by support of the geophysical results based on the integration by a permanence ratio. The integration was good enough to produce results that compensated for the defection of each exploration method. Also, the probabilistic feature of the final product of the RQD distribution made it possible to assess a more quantitative rock quality evaluation and better decision making for safety design.