Scale

Learning Objectives

• What are the differences in the usages of the term scale?
• How do changes in scale affect the way data are analyzed?
• How do you determine the appropriate scale for a problem?

 
Lecture Materials
Definitions 
Scale
 
Affiliated Concepts
Heirarchy
Levels of scale
Magnitude
 
Examples 
ARGUS
Map Scale
 
MIT OpenCourseWare
Scale in the biosphere
 
spatial@ucsb
Scale
 
Wikipedia
How Long is the Coast of Britain?
 
Lab Materials
Activities by Discipline
Astronomy
Students explore the scale of the solar system.
 
Earth Science
Students create correctly scaled maps of landform features from Earth, Venus, and Mars.
 
Economics
Students examine the concept of economies of scale and its applications.
 
Geography
Students examine map scale within GIS
 
Geography
Students digitize a location from a series of maps with different scales.
 
Math
Students examine how changing the scale of data affects its histogram.
 
Nanoscience
Students learn how structures at the nano-scale allow geckos to stick to surfaces.

Example GIS Tools
Aggregate
Generates a reduced resolution version of a raster.
 
Kernel Density
Calculates a magnitude per unit area from point or polyline features using a kernel function to fit a smoothly tapered surface to each point or polyline.
 
Resample
Alters the proportions of the raster dataset by changing the cell size.