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Modelling Scale in Geographical Information Science
ISBN: 978-0-471-98546-4
November 2001
296 pages
This book is split into three sections to give a balanced coverage of the key problems, tools and models associated with scale. Part 1 considers the fractal model of spatial variation. Fractals are mathematical models of spatial variation which are independent of scale. Part 2 addresses the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP), which continues to be the scale issue for census data. The MAUP is comprised of two component problems: a scaling problem and a zonation problem and is intrinsic to the spatial analysis of census-type data in which the areal units vary from place to place in size, shape and orientation. The concepts of changing scale and regularization are covered in Part 3. The emphasis here is upon the tools of geostatistics (for continuous field data) and generalization (for vector models) which are used to change the scale of measurement.
This book is an essential read for all GIScience researchers, advanced students and practitioners who want to delve more deeply into the scale issues of the spatial data and spatial models that form the basis of their analyses.