| One of the most significant developments currently contributing to spatial scaling theories and methodologies is the concept of scale domains, or regions on the scale continuum over which spatial patterns do not change with shifts in scale. The identification of spatial scale domains is one approach for ensuring the proper scaling, integration, and manipulation of environmental data sets.; The purpose of this thesis is to determine the scalability of commonly available digital topographic and landcover datasets through the identification of scale domains and scale domain thresholds. The main objectives of the study are to determine if fine-scale landscape data can be reliably scaled-up to the level of contemporary synoptic-scale satellite data, and whether various landscape datasets share similar scaling properties. The research includes an evaluation of the capacity of the selected statistics of variance, spatial autocorrelation, semivariance, and the fractal dimension to reveal similar scale domains and thresholds. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
