Point pattern analysis examples

1. What is point pattern analysis used for?
2. How do you define point patterns?
3. What are examples of spatial patterns?
4. What is a spatial point pattern?

What is point pattern analysis used for?

Point pattern analysis (PPA) focuses on the analysis, modeling, visualization, and interpretation of point data. With the increasing availability of big geo-data, such as mobile phone records and social media check-ins, more and more individual-level point data are generated daily.

How do you define point patterns?

Point pattern analysis is concerned with the location of events, and with answering questions about the distribution of those locations, specifically whether they are clustered, randomly or regularly distributed.

What are examples of spatial patterns?

Types of spatial patterns represented on maps include absolute and relative distance and direction, clustering, dispersal, and elevation.

What is a spatial point pattern?

A spatial pattern can be represented by a point pattern (e.g. trees) which consists of a set of mapped point locations in a study area (Wiegand and Moloney 2004, Fig. 1). In a point process, each single tree can be considered a point. Therefore, SPPA studies the spatial arrangement of points.