We don't have dollars and cents that we can use for all of these data series. Space spatial representation frequently becomes the framework for integrating the data. The Problem of Space . But space also creates a problem in data integration, because the unit of analysis or the basic spatial unit differs for the three major types of data that I am talking about. Remote sensing data is provided to us in an image, and that image then is superimposed with an imaginary grid.
Scientists use that grid to analyze images.
Jurisdictions are determined by historical forces, historical practice, or historical agreements. Jurisdictions also can be determined by rivers or by, in some cases, the shifting boundaries created by war, politics, and treaties. All socioeconomic data that are collected by the government are collected for political jurisdictions. So you have to break out of the tyranny of those political jurisdictions in order to put the data in a framework where you can use them with the gridded data that are available through remote sensing. To complicate things further, you have ecosystem data.