Quantifying spatial patterns

Now that you can load, manipulate, and visualize spatial data in R, we can begin exploring workflows for incorporating these data into statistical analysis. We’ll begin by looking at methods for identifying and characterizing spatial patterns in your data. By recognizing that spatial patterns are the realizations of underlying social or ecological processes, we can develop a framework for statistical analysis.

Resources

• Chapter 2: Scale in (Fletcher and Fortin 2018) provides a thorough introduction to the ecologist’s conceptualization of scale with R examples.

• This article by Steven Manson (Manson 2008) provides a more comprehensive view of conceptualizations of scale.

• The Hypothesis Testing and Autocorrelation chapters of Manuel Gimond’s Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis bookdown project provide concrete examples of attempts to find process from spatial patterns.

Slides

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• Quantifying spatial patterns
• Patterns as process
• Tobler’s law
• The importance of scale