Introduction to point pattern analysis

Much of the development in statistical techniques for spatial data is rooted in the analysis of point processes. This is, perhaps, unsurprising given that the the point is the simplest of our different data models and the least ambiguous to reference spatially. Although points may be a “simpler” geometry, the analyses associated with them are far from simple. Today’s lecture is only the briefest of introductions to point pattern analysis, but hopefully will get you comfortable with the ideas and terminology behind more advanced analyses.

Resources

• Rings, circles, and null-models for point pattern analysis in ecology by (Wiegand and A. Moloney 2004) provides an introduction to metrics for spatial clustering with applications in ecology.

• Improving the usability of spatial point process methodology: an interdisciplinary dialogue between statistics and ecology by Janine Illian (a major contributor to modern point pattern analyses) and David Burslem (a Scottish plant ecologist) (Illian and Burslem 2017) is a fairly modern take on the challenges associated with point process modeling in ecology.

• Chapter 11: Point Pattern Analysis in Manuel Gimond’s Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis bookdown project provides a nice (and free) introduction to some of these introductory point process methods.

Slides

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• Introduction to point patterns
• Describing point patterns
• Analyzing point patterns