ABSTRACT
The final distinction made in Chapter 2 to describe some of the types of data used in geography may also be used to describe their measurement. By ‘measurement’ geographers usually mean two things: first, the description of what the data represent (i.e., a ‘naming’ function), and second, the calculation of their quantity (i.e., a ‘counting’ function). Measurement thus includes the assignment of names to features on the ground, and the calculation of complex relationships using them, e.g., the assessment of the density of land use in a given area. The motivation for this is to provide a mechanism which may be used to describe geographical individuals and to communicate this description to others. Both aspects are most readily achieved using a ‘language’ which is at once unambiguous, flexible, plausible and generally accepted by researchers.
