%0 Journal Article 
%A Ruiz Marín, Manuel
%A López Hernández, Fernando Antonio
%A Páez, Antonio
%T Comparison of thematic maps using symbolic entropy
%D 2012
%@ 1365-8816
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10317/3388
%X Comparison of thematic maps is an important task in a number of disciplines. Map comparison has traditionally been conducted using cell-by-cell agreement indicators,
such as the Kappa measure. More recently, other methods have been proposed that take
into account not only spatially coincident cells in two maps, but also their surroundings
or the spatial structure of their differences. The objective of this paper is to propose a
framework for map comparison that considers 1) the patterns of spatial association in
two maps, in other words, the map elements in their surroundings; 2) the equivalence of
those patterns; and 3) the independence of patterns between maps. Two new statistics
for the spatial analysis of qualitative data are introduced. These statistics are based on
the symbolic entropy of the maps, and function as measures of map compositional
equivalence and independence. As well, all inferential elements to conduct hypothesis
testing are developed. The framework is illustrated using real and synthetic maps.
%K Thematic maps
%K Map comparison
%K Qualitative variables
%K Spatial association
%K Symbolic entropy
%K Hypothesis tests
%~ GOEDOC, SUB GOETTINGEN