A new methodology for creating highly accurate, static nonlinear maps from scattered, multivariate data is presented. This new methodology uses the B-form polynomials of multivariate simplex splines in a new linear regression scheme. This allows the use of standard parameter estimation techniques for estimating the B-coefficients of the multivariate simplex splines. We present a generalized least squares estimator for the B-coefficients, and show how the estimated B-coefficient variances lead to a new model quality assessment measure in the form of the B-coefficient variance surface. The new modeling methodology is demonstrated on a nonlinear scattered bivariate dataset. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.