Comparison of predictions by kriging and spatial autoregressive models

In geostatistics, the prediction of unknown quantities at given locations is commonly made by the kriging technique. In addition to the kriging technique for modeling regular lattice spatial data, the spatial autoregressive models can also be used. In this article, the spatial autoregressive model and the kriging technique are introduced. We extend prediction method proposed by Basu and Reinsel for SAR(2,1) model. Then, using a simulation study and real data, we compare prediction accuracy of the spatial autoregressive models with that of the kriging prediction. The results of simulation study show that predictions made by the autoregressive models are good competitor for the kriging method.