Exploring Spatial Scale in Geography

Exploring Spatial Scale in Geography provides a conceptual and practical guide to issues of spatial scale in all areas of the physical and social sciences. Scale is at the heart of geography and other spatial disciplines; whether dealing with geomorphological processes, population movements or meteorology, a consideration of spatial scale is vital. This book offers alternative definitions of spatial scale, presents approaches for exploring spatial scale, and makes use of a wide variety of case studies in the physical and social sciences to demonstrate key concepts. It consists of three integrated strands. The first is conceptual, outlining some definitions of spatial scale and debating the meaning and value of concepts of scale. The second strand outlines methods for exploration of spatial scale including standard measures of spatial autocorrelation, fractals, wavelets, multilevel models and geostatistical measures. The third and final strand demonstrates the application of these concepts and methods to real world case studies. The author takes a practical approach and links are made to appropriate software environments, with an associated website providing access to guidance material which outlines how particular problems can be approached using popular GIS and spatial data analysis software. As such, it is a key resource for GIS professionals, academics and postgraduate students in geography, environmental science, civil and environmental engineering, remote sensing, archaeology and