Week 3: Why is ‘geography’ important?
by tingyi liu
One fundamental issue in geography study is finding the correct scale. Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) is endemic to all spatially aggregated data. If the inappropriate too small or large scale is selected, the analysis results would be greatly affected. For example, human geography uses arbitrary units. , when natural physical units have their own issues, as they may have fuzzy or fractal borders.
Other issues such as grain and extent of a study area, the modifiable areal unit problem, the nature of the boundaries of a study area, and spatial dependence/heterogeneity are implicit in any spatial analysis.