Point Pattern Analysis

Point pattern analysis is considered a branch of spatial statistics involving the ability to analyze the spatial patterns of “events” that occur at a set of locations, with each event representing a single instance of the phenomenon of interest. Point patterns were initially studied in plant ecology 70 years ago, when researchers tried to describe and analyze the spatial distribution of plants. Point pattern analysis was gradually introduced into a wide range of fields such as archeology, epidemiology, astronomy, criminology, and so on. Meanwhile, the analysis received much interest in geography in the early 1960s during the quantitative revolution and was used and extended to examine settlement patterns, retail establishments, and spatial characteristics of the landscape such as drumlins, volcanic craters, and others. In general, ...