The concept of Earth resource management emerged with the work of Georges Matheron (1930 2000) at the Centre de géostatistique and Mathematical Morphology (School of Mines of Paris in Fontainebleau),in the second half of the 20th century.

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Starting with the most valuable resources (mines, oil and gas), it quickly spread to other Earth Resources (forests, oceans, agriculture) and evolved over time to more recent concerns about air, water and soil pollution, nuclear waste and the consequences of climate change. 

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Georges Matheron identified Uncertainty as the key feature of the Earth Resource Management: Because of Uncertainty, operators would  consider the exploration , evaluation, and production of Earth Resources as mainly controlled by Chance and would then  look for taking as much as they could from them as long as they were lucky. 

 

His work on mathematics (probability) for modeling randomness has led to the development of powerful computing tools to support a more responsible and sustainable way of managing Earth Resources

 

It was necessary to wait for the beginning of the 21st century and the advent of the digital world with high power and low computing costs to see these probabilistic algorithms take their rightful place in the world of artificial intelligence for a sustainable and profitable management of our natural environment.