The Application of Directional Univariate Structure Functions Analysis for Studying the Spatial Anisotropy of Environmental Variables

As anisotropy is a fundamental property of the real-world environmental spatial variables, the conventional omnidirectional variograms and correlograms do not provide means enough to characterise spatial dependence between observations. The purpose of this article is to introduce directional univari...

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Main Author: Svidzinska Daria
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2019-06-01
Series:Ekológia (Bratislava)
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/eko-2019-0011
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author Svidzinska Daria
author_facet Svidzinska Daria
author_sort Svidzinska Daria
collection DOAJ
description As anisotropy is a fundamental property of the real-world environmental spatial variables, the conventional omnidirectional variograms and correlograms do not provide means enough to characterise spatial dependence between observations. The purpose of this article is to introduce directional univariate structure functions analysis to explore and quantify the spatial anisotropy of environmental variables. Analysis of six environmental variables within three physical–geographical regions proved the leading role of relief for landscape differentiation; it also defined the size and extension of major landforms responsible for the organisation of spatial pattern. The arrangement of the vegetation patches demonstrated linkage with the major landforms. The other relief derivatives, being prone to noise and artefacts in the original data, showed a random-variable type of behaviour. In the lack of any particular spatially anisotropic structure, the results of the analysis can provide a clue about meaningful distances of interest at finer scales. The approach can also be an exploratory tool for discrete measurements to recognise the features of spatial continuity.
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spelling doaj.art-5f845fa42d9f4297b2a8554bec1d546d2022-12-21T19:18:20ZengSciendoEkológia (Bratislava)1337-947X2019-06-0138214015310.2478/eko-2019-0011eko-2019-0011The Application of Directional Univariate Structure Functions Analysis for Studying the Spatial Anisotropy of Environmental VariablesSvidzinska Daria0Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Geography, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 2A Akademika Glushkova ave., MSP-680, Kyiv, UkraineAs anisotropy is a fundamental property of the real-world environmental spatial variables, the conventional omnidirectional variograms and correlograms do not provide means enough to characterise spatial dependence between observations. The purpose of this article is to introduce directional univariate structure functions analysis to explore and quantify the spatial anisotropy of environmental variables. Analysis of six environmental variables within three physical–geographical regions proved the leading role of relief for landscape differentiation; it also defined the size and extension of major landforms responsible for the organisation of spatial pattern. The arrangement of the vegetation patches demonstrated linkage with the major landforms. The other relief derivatives, being prone to noise and artefacts in the original data, showed a random-variable type of behaviour. In the lack of any particular spatially anisotropic structure, the results of the analysis can provide a clue about meaningful distances of interest at finer scales. The approach can also be an exploratory tool for discrete measurements to recognise the features of spatial continuity.https://doi.org/10.2478/eko-2019-0011autocorrelationenvironmental variablekanivs’kiy nature reservesemivariancespatial analysisspatial anisotropy
spellingShingle Svidzinska Daria
The Application of Directional Univariate Structure Functions Analysis for Studying the Spatial Anisotropy of Environmental Variables
Ekológia (Bratislava)
autocorrelation
environmental variable
kanivs’kiy nature reserve
semivariance
spatial analysis
spatial anisotropy
title The Application of Directional Univariate Structure Functions Analysis for Studying the Spatial Anisotropy of Environmental Variables
title_full The Application of Directional Univariate Structure Functions Analysis for Studying the Spatial Anisotropy of Environmental Variables
title_fullStr The Application of Directional Univariate Structure Functions Analysis for Studying the Spatial Anisotropy of Environmental Variables
title_full_unstemmed The Application of Directional Univariate Structure Functions Analysis for Studying the Spatial Anisotropy of Environmental Variables
title_short The Application of Directional Univariate Structure Functions Analysis for Studying the Spatial Anisotropy of Environmental Variables
title_sort application of directional univariate structure functions analysis for studying the spatial anisotropy of environmental variables
topic autocorrelation
environmental variable
kanivs’kiy nature reserve
semivariance
spatial analysis
spatial anisotropy
url https://doi.org/10.2478/eko-2019-0011
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