A method for inspecting a wafer, comprising: defining a wafer partitioning scheme; obtaining a wafer surface image; partitioning the wafer surface image into a plurality of measurement sites according to the wafer partitioning scheme, wherein the wafer partitioning scheme is a Cartesian grid partition scheme, the Cartesian grid partition scheme partitions the measurement sites into a plurality of uniform rectangular site areas; calculating a plurality of measurement metrics for each of the plurality of measurement sites based on the acquired wafer surface image including site image shape data for each of the measurement sites, wherein the measurement metrics calculated for each measurement site includes: a plurality of surface shape metrics obtained by fitting polynomial equations to the site image data of each of the measurement sites to obtain: a mean level value of the site image data; a first order best-fit surface value of the site image data; and a second order best-fit surface value of the site image data; and a plurality of deviation metrics obtained by subtracting each of the mean level value, first order best-fit surface value and second order best-fit surface value individually from the original site image shape data of the measurement sites; and reporting the plurality of measurement metrics calculated for each of the plurality of measurement sites in a graphical representation. defining a wafer partitioning scheme; obtaining a wafer surface image; partitioning the wafer surface image into a plurality of measurement sites according to the wafer partitioning scheme, wherein the wafer partitioning scheme is a Cartesian grid partition scheme, the Cartesian grid partition scheme partitions the measurement sites into a plurality of uniform rectangular site areas; calculating a plurality of measurement metrics for each of the plurality of measurement sites based on the acquired wafer surface image including site image shape data for each of the measurement sites, wherein the measurement metrics calculated for each measurement site includes: a plurality of surface shape metrics obtained by fitting polynomial equations to the site image data of each of the measurement sites to obtain: a mean level value of the site image data; a first order best-fit surface value of the site image data; and a second order best-fit surface value of the site image data; and a plurality of deviation metrics obtained by subtracting each of the mean level value, first order best-fit surface value and second order best-fit surface value individually from the original site image shape data of the measurement sites; and a plurality of surface shape metrics obtained by fitting polynomial equations to the site image data of each of the measurement sites to obtain: a mean level value of the site image data; a first order best-fit surface value of the site image data; and a second order best-fit surface value of the site image data; and a mean level value of the site image data; a first order best-fit surface value of the site image data; and a second order best-fit surface value of the site image data; and a plurality of deviation metrics obtained by subtracting each of the mean level value, first order best-fit surface value and second order best-fit surface value individually from the original site image shape data of the measurement sites; and reporting the plurality of measurement metrics calculated for each of the plurality of measurement sites in a graphical representation. <EOS>