The remaining topics introduce multiple approaches to analysis of point and area data. We begin with point pattern analysis, for points that represent specific events, then discuss geostatistical methods for estimation when the points represent locations of attribute measurement. Discussion then focuses on the nature of and methods for analyzing boundaries in space. We will look at a specific set of analytical tools for describing landscape patterns, derived from the field of landscape ecology. Finally, we will look at methods for inferential analysis using area-based measurements.
Assignments involve computer exercises using real social and physical environmental data.
The goal of this class is to explore various approaches to modeling land use and cover pattern and change. Land use is a social phenomenon, driven by the need that people have to make their lives and their living on the land. Land cover, on the other hand, is the biophysical state of the landscape. Therefore, the course will necessarily move between social and ecological processes and applications of the models, always with a geographical focus. During the course we will explore the approaches that different models take, review applications of the models, and work on problem sets around 5-6 different types of models.