Statistics in Geography-An Overview
What Is Geography?
1. Attempt to describe, explain and predict spatial
patterns and activities
2. How and why do things differ from place to place?
3. How do spatial patterns change through time?
How Do Geographers Approach Discipline
1. Positivism- objectivity of scientific analysis and testing
hypotheses to build knowledge and understanding
2. Humanistic- people create subjective worlds in their
minds- behavior understood only by a methodology that
penetrates the subjectivity
3. Structuralists- cannot explain observed pattern by
examining pattern itself. But rather establish theories to
explain development of societal conditions within which
people must act
Role of Statistics
Room in all the above interpretations for quantitative
analysis.
But increasingly both quantitative and qualitative
analysis are important
Qualitative analysis involves?
Statistics and measurement are used commonly in our
lives
A. Making home purchase decisions
B. Setting up investments
C. Weather variations are expressed as probabilities
How Do Geographers Use Statistics?
1. Describe and summarize data
2. Make generalizations concerning complex spatial
patterns
3. Estimate likelihoods of outcomes for events at
particular location(s)
4. Use sample data to make inferences about a larger
set of data (a population)
5. Learn whether actual pattern matches an expected
or theoretical
6. Wish to compare or associate (correlate) patterns of
distributions
Formulating the Research Process
1. Problem Identification
2. Develop Questions to Investigate
3. Collect and Prepare Data
4. Process descriptive data (maps, graphics)------>Reach
conclusions
5. Formulate Hypothesis >>>>> Collect and Prepare
Sample Data
6. Test Hypothesis>>Evaluate Hypothesis
7. Develop Model, Law, or Theory
What Are Models?
Abstractions of the real world
Simplified versions of reality
Easier to examine scaled down and simplified structures
in attempt to understand
Iconic models- look like what they represent (
Analogue models- one property used to represent
another
Symbolic models- equations
Basic Terms and Concepts
Data element- basic element of information which we
measure
Data Set- groups of data (commuting sheds of industries)
Observations-Cases-Individuals- elements of phenomena
under study
Variable- property or characteristics of each observation
that can be measured, classified or counted
Values may vary among set of observations: rainfall, per
capita income, years of schooling
Geographic Data
1. What sources of data are available?
2. Which methods of data collections should be used?
3. What type of data will be collected and then
analyzed statistically?
Types of Data
Primary Data- acquired directly from original source
1. Information collected in the field
2. Usually very time consuming
3. Involves decision about a sample design so
representative data may be obtained
Types of Data
Secondary Data (or Archival Data)
1. Usually collected by some organization (United
Nations, U S Bureau of Census)
2. Often easily accessible- hardcopy or CD rom
3. Less time consuming but also more limiting
4. Often need to inspect historical records and archives
for diaries, oral histories, official reports in order to
develop a picture of problem
Characteristics of Data
1. Some data are explicitly spatial- locations are directly
analyzed
2. Other data implicitly spatial- data represents places but
locations themselves are not analyzed (population sizes of
towns)
Measurement Concepts
1.Precision- level of exactness associated with measurement
(rain gauge to inches or fractions of inches)
2. Accuracy- extent of system wide bias in measurement
process
3. Validity- if geographical concept is complex expressing
“true” or “appropriate” meaning of the concept through
measurement may be difficult (levels of poverty, economic
well being, environmental quality)
4. Reliability- changes in spatial patterns are analyzed over
time must ask about consistency and stability of data
Types of Statistical Analysis
Descriptive Statistics- concise numerical or quantitative
summaries of the characteristics of a variable or data set
(e.g. mean, standard deviation, etc)
Inferential Statistics- here we wish to make generalizations
about a statistical population (total set of information or
data under investigation) based on the information from a
sample
Sample- typical or representative or unbiased subset of the
broader, larger more complete statistical population
