ABSTRACT
Scale represents the real world as translated onto a map; in other words, it is the relationship between distance on a map, image, air photo and the corresponding distance on Earth (Malczewski 1999). Scale is also the spatial or temporal measure of an object or a process (Turner and Gardner 1991), or level or degree of spatial resolution (Forman 1995). Components of scale include composition, structure, and function, which are all important ecological and environmental concepts.
