ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with descriptive spatial analysis of point data, followed by linear and areal data. Simple descriptive analysis of point density and pattern is presented first, followed by inferential analysis of point pattern at multiple scales, commonly known as kernel density analysis. Second-order analysis of point data is discussed more extensively than first-order hotspot analysis or nearest neighbour analysis. This chapter also addresses how to quantify individual linear entities (e.g., river channels) and topographic surfaces descriptively, based on the fractal geometry. In particular, the chapter demonstrates how the shape of areal entities can be analysed using a number of methods, with the pros and cons of each critically evaluated. How to analyse one particular class of areal data, land cover parcels, to quantify landscape is illustrated using FragStats. Finally, this chapter describes briefly how to analyse directional data and how to visualise the analytical results effectively.
