Lecture 11

------Using GIS--
Introduction to GIS

Spatial Sampling and Interpolation

Raghunath Jha
Raghunath Jha

Introduction to GIS

How are raster surfaces Made?

•Raster surfaces are generally either made:
• From remote sensing (covered later) which
collects reflectance values at every pixel within the
geographic extent and can be classified later on or
•From sample points whose Z values are
Interpolated across space to fill in all the blank
areas.

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Introduction to GIS

What is interpolation?
•Process of creating a surface based on values at
isolated sample points.
•Sample points are locations where we collect data on
some phenomenon and record the spatial coordinates
•We use mathematical estimation to “guess at” what
the values are “in between” those points
•We can create either a raster or vector interpolated
surface
•Interpolation is used because field data are expensive
to collect, and can’t be collected everywhere
©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

How does it Look

•Let say we have our ground water pollution samples

This
gives
us

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Introduction to GIS

How does it work

•This can be displayed as a 3D trend surface in 3D analyst

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

How does it work

•We can also use interpolation methods to create contours

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Introduction to GIS

Sample points
• Also known as “control points.”
•These are points where you or someone else has
collected data (attributes) for a spatial coordinate (point)
•Any number of attributes can be collected at that point
•E.g.1 weather stations collect data on temperature,
rainfall, wind, humidity, etc.
•E.g. 2 soil invertebrate samples would record
abundance of numerous species at each location

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

What isn’t interpolation?

•Interpolation only works where values are spatially
dependant, or spatially autocorrelated, that is, where
nearby location tend to have similar Z values.
•Examples of spatially autocorrelated features:
elevation, property value, crime levels, precipitation
•Non-autocorrelated examples: number of drum sets per
city block; cheeseburgers consumed per household.
•Where values across a landscape are geographically
independent, interpolation does not work because value
of (x,y) cannot be used to predict value of (x+1, y+1).
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Introduction to GIS

Interpolation examples
•Elevation:

Source: LUBOS
MITAS AND
HELENA
MITASOVA,
University of Illinois

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Interpolation examples
•Elevation:
•Elevation values tend to be highly spatially
autocorrelated because elevation at location (x,y) is
generally a function of the surrounding locations
•Except is areas where terrain is very abrupt and
precipitous, such as Patagonia, or Yosemite
•In this case, elevation would not be
autocorrelated at local (large) scale, but still may
be autocorrelated at regional (small scale)

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Interpolation examples
•Imagine this elevation cross section: If each dashed line
represented a sample point (in 1-D), this spacing would
miss major local sources of variation, like the gorge

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Interpolation examples
•Our interpolated surface (represented in 1-D by the blue
line) would look like this

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Introduction to GIS

Interpolation examples
•If we increased the sampling rate, we would pick up that
local variation

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Interpolation examples
•Here our interpolated surface is much closer to reality at
the local level, but we pay for this in the form of higher
data gathering cost

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Interpolation examples
•Weather
•Weather tends to be modeled on a regional level (e.g.
your local weather report) because, in most places,
weather systems and trends happen over a very large
area. Hence the need for sample point density is not
so great
•In other places, local climate variability is very great,
such as in the SF Bay Area where temperatures can
vary 50 degrees within 10 miles due to ocean effects.

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Interpolation examples
•Weather
Example: precipitation varying over a
•Weather is also season
extremely variable
over time, so
samples must be
continually taken.
This is why weather
stations are usually
permanent

Source: LUBOS MITAS AND

HELENA MITASOVA, University
of Illinois
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Interpolation examples
•Groundwater contamination:
•The needed density of points will depend on the
geology and the type of terrain
•Areas where geology allows for free groundwater
flows across large areas will have less local variation
and need less dense points, while areas with geologic
features that inhibit or redirect flow (e.g. karst
topography) will need denser points

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Where interpolation
does not work
•Cannot use interpolation where values are not spatially
autocorrelated
•Say looking at household income—in an income-
segregated city, you could take a small sample of
households for income and probably interpolate
•However, in a highly income-integrated city, where a
given block has rich and poor, this would not work

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Introduction to GIS

Sampling
•As you can see, the density and spacing of samples
depends on many things
•A key component of any study with spatially
referenced field data is the sampling strategy
•If the values in your interpolation surface (layer A)
depend on some factor in layer B, then we can design
our sample of A based on layer B
•We can do this by conducting a stratified random
sample

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Sampling
•Example: let’s say want to make an average precipitation layer
and we find that in our study zone precipitation is highly spatially
variable within 10 miles of the ocean
•We’d a coastline layer to help us sample.
•We’d have high density of sampling points within 10 miles of
the ocean a much lower density in the inland zones

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Sampling
•Say we were looking at an inland area, far from any ocean, and
we decided that precipitation varied with elevation. How would
we set up our sampling design?
•In this case, flat areas would need fewer sample points, while
areas of rough topography would need more
•In our sampling design we would set up zones, or strata,
corresponding to different elevation zones and we would make
sure that we get a certain minimum number of samples within
each of those zones
•This ensures we get a representative sample across, in this case,
elevation;

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Sampling
•The number of zones we use will determine how
representative our sample is; if zones are big and broad,
we do not ensure that all elevation ranges are represented

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Sampling
•The number of samples we want within each zone
depends on the statistical certainty with which we want
to generate our surface
•Do we want to be 95% certain that a given pixel is
classified right, or 90% or 80%?
•Our desired confidence level will determine the
number of samples we need per strata
•This is a tradeoff between cost and statistical certainty
•Think of other examples where you could stratify….
©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Sampling
•A common problem with sampling points for interpolation
is what is not being sampled?
•Very frequently people leave out sample points that are
hard to get to or hard to collect data at
•This creates sampling biases and regions whose
interpolated values are essentially meaningless
•So spacing of sample points from interpolation should be
based on some meaningful factor—if they are dense in a
region in sparse in a region, it should be because the values
are variable in the first area and homogeneous in the other
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Sampling and Scale dependency

•Sampling strategy for interpolation depends on the
scale at which you are working and the scale
dependency of the phenomenon you are studying
•In many cases interpolation will work to pick up
regional trends but lose the local variation in the process
•The density of sample points must be chosen to reflect
the scale of the phenomenon you are measuring.

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Scale dependency
•If you have a high density of sample points, you
will capture local variation, which is appropriate for
large-scale (small-area) studies
•If you have low density of sample points, you will
lose sensitivity of local variation and capture only
the regional variation; this is more appropriate for
small-scale (large-area) studies

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How does interpolation work

•In ArcGIS, to interpolate:
•Create or add a point shapefile with some attribute
that will be used as a Z value
•Click Spatial Analyst>>Interpolate to Raster and
then choose the method

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Inverse Distance Weighting

•IDW weights the value of each point by its distance to
the cell being analyzed and averages the values.
•IDW assumes that unknown value is influenced more by
nearby than far away points, but we can control how rapid
that decay is. “Influence diminishes with distance.”
•“To predict a value for any unmeasured location, IDW will use the
measured values surrounding the prediction location. Those
measured values closest to the prediction location will have more
influence on the predicted value than those farther away. It weights
the points closer to the prediction location greater than those farther
away, hence the name inverse distance weighted.” From ArcGIS help
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Spline Method
•Another option for interpolation method
•This fits a curve through the sample data assign values to
other locations based on their location on the curve
•Thin plate splines create a surface that passes through sample
points with the least possible change in slope at all points,
that is with a minimum curvature surface
•SPLINE has two types: regularized and tension
•Tension results in a rougher surface that more closely
adheres to abrupt changes in sample points
•Regularized results in a smoother surface that smoothes out
abruptly changing values somewhat
©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Kriging Method
•Semivariograms measure the strength of statistical correlation as a
function of distance; they quantify spatial autocorrelation
•Because Kriging is based on the semivariogram, it is probabilistic,
while IDW and Spline are deterministic
•Kriging associates some probability with each prediction, hence it
provides not just a surface, but some measure of the accuracy of
that surface
•Kriging equations are determined by fitting line through points so
as to minimize weighted sum of squares between points and line
•These equations are weighted based on spatial autocorrelation,
which is determined from the semivariograms
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Example
•Here are some sample elevation points from which surfaces were
derived using the three methods

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Example: Spline
•Note how smooth the curves of the terrain are; this is because
Spline is fitting a simply polynomial equation through the points

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Example: IDW
•Done with P =2. Notice how it is not as smooth as Spline. This is
because of the weighting function introduced through P

©2005 Austin Troy

Introduction to GIS

Example: Kriging
•This one is kind of in between—because it fits an equation
through point, but weights it based on probabilities

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Other methods of interpolation

•Thiessen polygons
•This method builds
polygons, rather than
a raster surface, from
control points
•“grows” polygons
around sample points
that are supposed to
represent areas of Source: Jens-Ulrich Nomme http://www.tu-harburg.de/sb3/pssd/GIS-
Methods/thiessen.html
homogeneity
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Introduction to GIS

Density Functions
•We can also use sample points to map out density raster surfaces.
This need to require a z value in each, it can simply be based on the
abundance and distribution of points.

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Density Functions
•These settings would give us a raster density surface, based just on
the abundance of points within a “kernel” or data frame. In this
case, a z value for each point is not necessary.

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