The analysis of geographical maps

Abstract

Much spatial data is in the form of maps of isolated objects such as towns, forts and stores in geography and archaeology, plants and nests in ecology, stars in astronomy and many other examples from a wide variety of disciplines. Three examples of such maps are given in figures 1, 4 and 9 (see appendix to this chapter). We concentrate on methods of analysis which aim to detect interaction between the objects exhibited by regularity or clustering of their spatial pattern. The traditional methods arc reviewed and compared with some recent developments.