Discovering controlling factors of geospatial variables

ABSTRACT

Efficient means of determining factors controlling spatial distribution of an environmental class variable are of significant interest in Earth science. In this paper, we present a method for automated discovery of controlling factors by mining for emerging patterns in a database constructed from the fusion of several explanatory datasets. We introduce a new definition of pattern support to account for spatial character of the data and systematically evaluate the effectiveness of our technique using a real-world application pertaining to density of vegetation cover. Experimental results show that our method can successfully identify controlling factors for the presence of high vegetation cover.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.5 PATTERN RECOGNITION
      I.5.2 Design Methodology
          Subjects: Pattern analysis

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.5 PATTERN RECOGNITION
      I.5.4 Applications

Keywords:
controlling factors, emerging patterns, spatial data mining