MANAGEMENT ZONE ANALYST

Version 1.0.0

For Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000

USER GUIDE
 OVERVIEW
Management Zone Analyst (hereinafter MZA) is a software program designed to
assist researchers, crop consultants, and producers with the process of sub-field
management zone delineation. Prior to zone delineation, MZA calculates descriptive
statistics for the variables used in the zone delineation process. The software uses
unsupervised fuzzy classification to create potential management zones for a given field.
To determine the appropriate number of management zones for a given field, two
measures of cluster performance are calculated by MZA in the post-classification
analysis. This guide provides users with the necessary background information for sub-
field delineation with MZA.

FILE FORMATS SUPPORTED

Management zone analyst works with comma-delimited ASCII (American
Standard Code for Information Interchange) text files. Such data files may be generated
by geographic information systems (GIS) software (i.e., ArcView, MapInfo),
spreadsheet, and/or database management software. With the exception of the statistics
file, all data files created by MZA are comma-delimited with the first line of the file
representing the variable names. The default file extension for the data files generated by
MZA is *.dat. The statistics file has a *.sta extension, and is also a text file.

MANAGEMENT ZONE DELINEATION

Management Zone Analyst does not identify which variables should be used in
the zone delineation process, but rather provides the user with a means of creating
management zones based on the variables selected. This section outlines the steps
required to create sub-field management zones with MZA.

1.) To begin, double-click the MZA program icon. Click anywhere in the gray area of
the splash screen (Figure 1) to continue.

2.) The MZA main window with four menus will appear. Choose Start from the
View menu (Figure 2).

3.) A window will appear entitled Start – Select an Input File (Figure 3). To open
the file containing the data to be used in the zone delineation process, click the
choose file button. The standard windows open file dialog box will appear.
Navigate to the file you wish to open, select the file, and click Open.

4.) The names of the variables in the data file appear in the Available Variables list
box. Variables to be used in the zone delineation process may be selected in two
ways: (1) double-click the name of the variable in the Available Variables list
box, or (2) select the name of the variable in the Available Variables list box and
click the add selected variable button. The variables selected by the user then
appear in the Selected Variables list box.
 Variables may be removed from the analysis by double-clicking the name of the
variable in the Selected Variables list box or by selecting the variable name and
clicking the Remove Selected Variable button.

Figure 1. Splash screen for MZA.

Figure 2. Selecting Start from the View menu.

5.) Once you have selected the variables you wish to use in the zone delineation
process, click the Next button on the Start window. The Explore Data window
will appear.

6.) In order to set the correct parameters for the unsupervised classification algorithm
(i.e., zone delineation process), descriptive statistics are calculated by
Management Zone Analyst prior to management zone delineation.

To calculate descriptive statistics on the variables selected for the zone

delineation process, click the Compute Statistics button on the Explore Data
window.
 Choose File button

Add selected variable button

Remove selected
Available variables list variable button
Selected variables list

Figure 3. The Start window in MZA.

7.) The Save As dialog box appears (Figure 4) prompting you for the location and
file name of the statistics file. Navigate to the directory where you wish to save
the file, type in a file name and click Save. A message box will appear upon
completion of the calculations. Click OK.

The file containing the descriptive statistics generated by MZA has a *.sta
extension. The file is formatted ASCII text and may be viewed in MZA or in any
word processor or text editor. If you wish to print the descriptive statistics, choose
Print… from the File menu.

8.) Scroll down in the Explore Data window until you see the variance-covariance
matrix (Figure 5). Examine values of the variance-covariance matrix. Values on
the diagonal of the matrix represent the variances of the selected variables. The
covariances are the variables above and below the diagonal (the variance-
covariance matrix is a mirrored matrix, values above and below the diagonal are
the same) and represent the amount of joint variation (i.e., statistical dependence)
between the selected variables.

The variance-covariance matrix is used to set the Measure of Similarity in the

zone delineation process. Table 1 contains the recommended settings for the
Measure of Similarity based on the structure of the variance-covariance matrix.
 Figure 4. The Save As dialog box.

Covariances

Variances

Figure 5. An example of the variance-covariance matrix calculated by MZA.

Table 1. Recommended settings for the Measure of Similarity in

MZA.
Scenario Measure of Similarity
Equal variances; covariances ≈ 0 Euclidean
Unequal variances; convariances ≈ 0 Diagonal
Unequal variances; covariances ≠ 0 Mahalonobis
One classification variable Euclidean

9.) Click the Next button on the Explore Data window. The Delineate Zones
window will appear (Figure 6).

10.) Set the Measure of Similarity according to the information provided in Table 1.
 Fuzziness exponent

Measure of similarity Input and output file locations

Maximum number of iterations

Convergence criterion
Minimum and maximum number of zones

Figure 6. The Delineate Zones window in MZA.

11.) The Fuzziness Exponent controls the amount of membership sharing that occurs
between classes or zones and must be set to a value greater than one (1). Values
close to one will generate hard classes with minimal membership sharing. The
default value of this parameter is 1.30, however, values of 1.20 to 2.00 are
generally considered acceptable.

12.) The Maximum Number of Iterations specifies the number of iterative loops the
algorithm runs through to determine the management zones. Generally, more than
300 iterations are not required.

13.) The Convergence Criterion provides a stopping point for the unsupervised
classification algorithm. The algorithm will terminate when the change in cluster
membership values from the previous iteration to the current iteration is less or
equal the specified convergence criterion. The default value of 0.0001 will result
in very stable clusters or management zones. Larger values may generate
unsatisfactory results as the cluster determination process may terminate before
stable classes are obtained.

14.) The Minimum and Maximum Number of Zones parameters specify how many
zones the field will be divided into. The minimum number zones may not be less
than two (2) and the maximum number of zones can not be greater than 100.
15.) Click the Classify button. Management Zone analyst will display a Save As
dialog box where you specify the location and name of the output data file. When
you click Save, MZA begins the process of dividing the field beginning with the
minimum number of zones up to the maximum number of zones.

16.) Upon completion of the zone delineation process, MZA will ask if you would like
to write the performance indices to a file (Figure 7). The performance indices are
used to determine the best number of zones for a given field. Exporting them from
MZA allows for further analysis in spreadsheet or graphing software.

Clicking Yes opens a Save As dialog box where you can specify the location and
name of the file containing the performance indices. The file will be saved as a
comma-delimited ASCII-text file. Clicking No at the prompt in Figure 7 brings
you to step 17.

Figure 7. Message box asking the user if they would like to

write the performance indices to a file.

17.) Management Zone Analyst will notify you that the classification is complete.
Click OK.

18.) Click the Next button on the Delineate Zones window. The Post Classification
Analysis (Figure 8) window will appear with two graphs. The two graphs are of
the performance indices calculated by MZA. The performance indices are used to
determine the best number of zones for a given field.

The normalized classification entropy (NCE) models the amount of

disorganization created by dividing a data set into classes. The best classification
is determined where NCE reaches a minimum. If a distinct minimum is not easily
determined, the following decision rule is applied: NCE(c-1) > NCEc ≈ NCE(c+1),
where c is the number of zones or classes.

The fuzziness performance index (FPI) models the amount of membership sharing
that occurs between classes. Like the NCE, the best classification is determined
where FPI reaches a minimum. Generally, a decision rule is not required for the
FPI.
 Best classification

Figure 8. Plots of the performance indices (NCE, left; FPI, right) in the post
classification analysis provided by MZA.

Last 5 columns contain

the zone to which that
observation belongs for
2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 zones.

Figure 9. Data file with management zone data appended by MZA.

At this point, the management zones created with MZA may be mapped in GIS or
desktop mapping software. The zone to which each observation belongs is appended to
the end of the original data file (Figure 9) and the file is saved with a name given by the
user.