Es 441 lecture 1

7th Jan 2016

Basic Classification schemes in
GIS
▪ Natural breaks (arcview’s default classification)
▫ This method identifies breakpoints by looking for groupings and
patterns that is inbuilt/available in the data by using an algorithm (Jenks
optimization)
▫ This method groups values within a class resulting in classes of similar
values separated by break points . This method works well with values
that are not evenly distributed and that are not heavily skewed towards
one end of the distribution or (this method seeks to partition data into
classes based on the natural groups in the data distribution, so classes
are defined according to natural groupings of your data values and
breaks may be imposed on the basis of break points that are known to
be relevant to a particular application)
▫ It can be used to discover patterns in data, however it can result in
legends that are difficult to understand & strange number ranges can
appear on the legend
NATURAL BREAKS
▪Quantiles breaks:
▫Equal number of features & corresponding
records are placed into each class, e.g. 20
records into five classes with four records
▫This is a good method for classifying evenly
distributed data
▫Can also result in misleading legends because
features with greatly different values can be
placed into a single class (i.e.. low values can
be in one class with high values)
▫Solution manually increase the number of
classes
QUANTILES
 Equal Interval
• Divides total range of records from maximum to
minimum say into equal sub ranges
• E.g. say you have values that range from 12 to 351, the
total range of these values is 339 & if you classify these
into three groups, you get 12 -125. 126 -238 and 239 –
351.
• This creates a legend that is easy to understand & it
works well with continuously distributed data, e.g.
precipitation, temp & percentages
• If it is applied to certain data types, the legend can end
up with few classes for one feature
Equal interval
 Equal area (for polygon features):
• It divides polygon features into groups so that the
total area of the polygons in each group is
approximately the same
• is a very specialized ArcView method that divides
the range of features in a polygon theme so that
each subrange contains basically the same area.
• Useful method for only a limited number of
situations, e.g. allocating working areas to
employees
Equal area
 Standard Deviation
• shows how an attribute’s value deviates
from the mean of all values. Here, the
software determines the mean value and
then places breaks above and below the
mean at intervals or deviations of either 1,
0.5 or 0.25 standard deviations until all
values are included in a class
Standard deviation
• Natural breaks (arcview’s default classification)-
– This method identifies breakpoints by looking for groupings and patterns that is inbuilt/available in the data by
using an algorithm (Jenks optimization) so this method groups values within a class resulting in classes of
similar values separated by break points . This method works well with value that are not evenly distributed
and that are not heavily skewed towards one end of the distribution or (this method seeks to partition data
into classes based on the natural groups in the data distribution, so classes are defined according to natural
groupings of your data values and break may be imposed on the basis of break points that are known to be
relevant to a particular application)
– It can be used to discover patterns in data, however it can result in legends that are difficult to understand &
strange number ranges can appear on the legend
• Quantiles breaks:
– Equal number of features & corresponding records are placed into each class, e.g. 20 records into five classes
with four records
– This is a good method for classifying evenly distributed data
– Can also result in misleading legends because features with greatly different values can be placed into a single
class (i.e.. low values can be in one class with high values)
– Solution manually increase the number of classes
• Equal Interval:
– Divides total range of records from maximum to minimum say into equal sub ranges
– E.g. say you have values that range from 12 to 351, the total range of these values is 339 & if you classify these
into three groups, you get 12 -125. 126 -238 and 239 – 351.
– This creates a legend that is easy to understand & it works well with continuously distributed data, e.g. ppt,
temp & percentages
– If it is applied to certain data types, the legend can end up with few classes for one feature
• Equal area (for polygon features):
– it divides polygon features into groups so that the total area of the polygons in each group is approximately the
same
– Useful method for only a limited number of situations, e.g. allocating working areas to employees
• Standard Deviation:
– shows how an attribute’s value deviates from the mean of all values. Here, the software determines the mean
value and then places breaks above and below the mean at intervals or deviations of either 1, 0.5 or 0.25
standard deviations until all values are included in a class