Publication Date
Winter 12-12-2019
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Wildfires pose a danger to both ecologies and communities. To this end, many large-scale analyses of wildfire patterns and behavior rely on the aggregation of point data to polygons, typically those based on distinct disparate ecological areas. However, the sizes, shapes, andorientations of the polygons to which data are aggregated are not neutral factors in the resulting analysis. The influence of the aggregation polygons on calculated results is known as the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP), which is well-documented in the spatial statistics literature. Despite the documentation of the MAUP, relatively few wildfire studies consider the effects of the MAUP on their results. Here, wildfire data from the Western United States are aggregated to twenty-five different sets of polygons. Variation by fishnet polygon area and shape are measured via summary statistics and a spatio-temporal trend analysis. Variation is also quantified between well-established hierarchical nested ecoregion polygons via summary statistics. Lastly, best practices for mitigating the effects of the MAUP on future wildfire studies are recommended.
Publisher
Jomard Publishing
Publication Title
Advances in Biology & Earth Sciences
ISSN
2519-8033
Volume
4
Issue
3
First Page
150
Last Page
175
Language (ISO)
English
Keywords
wildfires, spatial statistics, modifiable areal unit problem
Recommended Citation
Nagle-McNaughton, Timothy P.; Xi Gong; and Jose A. Constantine.
"Implications of the modifiable areal unit problem for wildfire analyses."
Advances in Biology & Earth Sciences
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Included in
Geography Commons, Mathematics Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Other Environmental Sciences Commons, Other Statistics and Probability Commons
