A geostatistical method has been developed by Ontario Power Generation to enable creation of 3D fracture network models (FNMs)
that explicitly honor detailed information on surface lineaments. This approach provides a systematic and traceable method
that is flexible and that accommodates data from many different sources. The detailed, complex and realistic models of 3D
fracture geometry produced by this method serve as an ideal basis for developing rock property models to be used in flow and
transport studies. These models are probabilistic in the sense that they consist of a family of equally likely renditions
of fracture geometry. Such probabilistic models are well suited to studying issues that involve risk assessment and quantification
of uncertainty.
The geostatistical procedure for simulating FNMs is described, and tested using field data collected from the Lägerdorf chalk
quarry in northern Germany.