Statistical Analysis Stack Exchange
Statistical Analysis Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [spatial]

The field of study concerning statistical methods that use space and spatial relationships (such as distance, area, volume, length, height, orientation, centrality and/or other spatial characteristics of data) directly in their mathematical computations.

Spatial statistics are used for a variety of different types of analyses, including pattern analysis, shape analysis, surface modeling and surface prediction, spatial regression, statistical comparisons of spatial datasets, statistical modeling and prediction of spatial interaction, and more. The many types of spatial statistics include descriptive, inferential, exploratory, geostatistical, and econometric statistics.

Reference: ESRI's GIS dictionary.

http://support.esri.com/en/knowledgebase/GISDictionary/term/spatial%20statistics

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Why does including latitude and longitude in a GAM account for spatial autocorrelation?

I have produced generalized additive models for deforestation. To account for spatial-autocorrelation, I have included latitude and longitude as a smoothed, interaction term (i.e. s(x,y)). I've based this on reading many papers where the authors say…
gisol
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40,000 neuroscience papers might be wrong

I saw this article in the Economist about a seemingly devastating paper [1] casting doubt on "something like 40,000 published [fMRI] studies." The error, they say, is because of "erroneous statistical assumptions." I read the paper and see it's…
R Greg Stacey
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Entropy of an image

What is the most information/physics-theoretical correct way to compute the entropy of an image? I don't care about computational efficiency right now - I want it theoretically as correct as possible. Lets start with a gray-scale image. One…
Davor Josipovic
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What is the rationale of the Matérn covariance function?

The Matérn covariance function is commonly used as kernel function in Gaussian Process. It is defined like this $$ {\displaystyle C_{\nu }(d)=\sigma ^{2}{\frac {2^{1-\nu }}{\Gamma (\nu )}}{\Bigg (}{\sqrt {2\nu }}{\frac {d}{\rho }}{\Bigg )}^{\nu…
Recuerdos de la Alhambra
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Why is Mantel's test preferred over Moran's I?

Mantel's test is widely used in biological studies to examine the correlation between the spatial distribution of animals (position in space) with, for example, their genetic relatedness, rate of aggression or some other attribute. Plenty of good…
Ladislav Naďo
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Is there an accepted definition for the median of a sample on the plane, or higher ordered spaces?

If so, what? If not, why not? For a sample on the line, the median minimizes the total absolute deviation. It would seem natural to extend the definition to R2, etc., but I've never seen it. But then, I've been out in left field for a long time.
phv3773
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Generating visually appealing density heat maps in R

While I know that there are a series of functions for generating heat maps in R, the problem is that I'm unable to produce visually appealing maps. For example, the images below are good examples of heat maps I want to avoid. The first clearly lacks…
Figaro
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Spatial statistics models: CAR vs SAR

When would one prefer to use a Conditional Autoregressive model over a Simultaneous Autoregressive model when modelling autocorrelated geo-referenced aerial data?
Graham Cookson
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2D analog of standard deviation?

Consider the following experiment: a group of people is given a list of cities, and asked to mark the corresponding locations on an (otherwise unlabeled) map of the world. For each city, you will get a scattering of points roughly centered at the…
koletenbert
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What statistical model or algorithm could be used to solve the John Snow Cholera problem?

I'm interested in learning how to develop a geographic approximation of some kind of epicenter based on the data from the John Snow Cholera outbreak. What statistical modeling could be used to solve such a problem without prior knowledge of where…
cylondude
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Data partitioning for spatial data

I am constructing different configurations of a Random Forest in order to investigate the influence of well-design variables and location, on the first-year production volumes of shale oil wells, within a given area in the US. In the different model…
veghokstvd
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Showing spatial and temporal correlation on maps

I have data for a network of weather stations across the United States. This gives me a data frame that contains date, latitude, longitude, and some measured value. Assume that data are collected once per day and driven by regional-scale weather…
Andy Clifton
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Statistical measure for if an image consists of spatially connected separate regions

Consider these two grayscale images: The first image shows a meandering river pattern. The second image shows random noise. I am looking for a statistical measure that I can use to determine if it is likely that an image shows a river pattern. The…
Andy
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Specify correlation structure for different groups in mixed-effects model (lme4/nlme)

I am trying to account for spatial autocorrelation in a linear mixed-effects model in R with measurements repeated in time. BodyMass has been collected once per Year in 150 different Sites over a 4-year period. Temporal autocorrelation should be…
Capreolus
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Spatial autocorrelation versus spatial stationarity

Let's assume we have points in two-dimensional space, and we wish to measure the effects of attributes $X$ on attribute $y$. The typical linear regression model is of course $$y= X\beta + \epsilon$$ There are two problems here: the first is that the…
gregmacfarlane
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