The interconnectedness among scale, spatial dependence, and spatial heterogeneity in geographical systems

Keywords: scale, spatial dependence, spatial heterogeneity
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Wednesday
Session Start / End Time: 4/7/2021 08:00 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/7/2021 09:15 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 18

Abstract

Scale, spatial dependence, and spatial heterogeneity are the three most fundamental issues in geography, and in geographic information science, to a certain extent. In practice, spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence, which are frequently introduced simultaneously as it arguably is difficult to tease apart one from the other, can be influenced by the scale of analysis. The interconnectedness among the three fundamental issues has been recognized widely and discussed qualitatively elsewhere. Our study shows how measures of spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity change when data are aggregated (i.e., averaged) at different analysis scales, and how spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity changes spatially (i.e., horizontally) and across scales (i.e., vertically) when spatial data are decomposed by location and frequency at different analysis scales. Understanding the connectedness among scale-spatial dependence-spatial heterogeneity can shed light on how to determine a suitable analysis scale which closely reflects the phenomenon scale.