What does MAUP stand for?

The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) is a statistical biasing effect when samples in a given area are used to represent information such as density in a given area.

What causes MAUP?

Through real examples, this article outlines the basic causes of MAUP, namely changes in the size, shape, and/or orientation of spatial categories/polygons used to map areal data. The visual effects of changes to mapped data are obvious even though the impacts on our understanding of the world are profound.

How do you reduce MAUP?

Using smaller areal unit (e.g., counties rather than states, census tracts rather than counties, or block groups rather than census tracts) for data aggregation may decrease this MAUP effect.

What is the scale effect in GIS?

The scale effect occurs when maps show different analytical results at different levels of aggregation. Despite using the same points, each successive smaller unit consequently changes the pattern.

What is areal unit?

Area is the amount of surface a two-dimensional shape can cover, measured in square units. The SI unit of area is the square meter (m2), which is a derived unit.

What is MAUP example?

The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) is a source of statistical bias that can significantly impact the results of statistical hypothesis tests. MAUP affects results when point-based measures of spatial phenomena are aggregated into districts, for example, population density or illness rates.

Why is MAUP important?

MAUP can be used as an analytical tool to help understand spatial heterogeneity and spatial autocorrelation. This topic is of particular importance because in some cases data aggregation can obscure a strong correlation between variables, making the relationship appear weak or even negative.

What is scale effect?

Definition of scale effect : the correction necessary to apply to measurements made on a model in a wind tunnel in order to deduce corresponding values for the full-sized object.

What is areal data?

Areal or lattice data arise when a fixed domain is partitioned into a finite number of subregions at which outcomes are aggregated. Examples of areal data are the number of cancer cases in counties, the number of road accidents in provinces, and the proportion of people living in poverty in census tracts.

Does scale affect time?

Despite considerable individual variability, significant effects were obtained. Smaller scale was, up to a point, related to a compression of subjective time relative to clock time, although the effect was nowhere near as great as that previously reported.

What is a scaling law?

Definition. Scaling laws describe the functional relationship between two physical quantities that scale with each other over a significant interval. An example of this is power law behaviour, where one quantity varies as a power of the other.