Scale in GIS: An overview

Michael F. Goodchild

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2010.10.004

Scale in GIS: An overview

Michael F. Goodchild

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

160 Scopus citations

Abstract

Scale has many meanings, but in GIS two are of greatest significance: resolution and extent. Ideally models of physical process would be defined and tested on scale-free data. In practice spatial resolution will always be limited by cost, data volume, and other factors. Raster data are shown to be preferable to vector data for scientific research because they make spatial resolution explicit. The effects of resolution are discussed for two simple GIS functions. Three theoretical frameworks for discussing spatial resolution are introduced and explored. The problems of cross-scale inference, including the modifiable areal unit problem and the ecological fallacy, are described and illustrated.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	5-9
Number of pages	5
Journal	Geomorphology
Volume	130
Issue number	1-2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2010.10.004
State	Published - Jul 1 2011
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Ecological fallacy
Extent
Modifiable areal unit problem
Representative fraction
Resolution
Scale

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Earth-Surface Processes

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10.1016/j.geomorph.2010.10.004

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AB - Scale has many meanings, but in GIS two are of greatest significance: resolution and extent. Ideally models of physical process would be defined and tested on scale-free data. In practice spatial resolution will always be limited by cost, data volume, and other factors. Raster data are shown to be preferable to vector data for scientific research because they make spatial resolution explicit. The effects of resolution are discussed for two simple GIS functions. Three theoretical frameworks for discussing spatial resolution are introduced and explored. The problems of cross-scale inference, including the modifiable areal unit problem and the ecological fallacy, are described and illustrated.

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KW - Modifiable areal unit problem

KW - Representative fraction

KW - Resolution

KW - Scale

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Scale in GIS: An overview

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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