Multivariate Spatial Measures

Multidimensional scaling is a technique for reducing dimensionality and is based on the distance between points. The result is a reduction in the dimensions used to represent the data with as little distortion as possible. It is similar in its objective to principal components analysis discussed earlier. If the methods employed use rank data, then it is called non-metric scaling otherwise, the terminology used is metric scaling. Studies concerning the analysis of distances between places on a map have received great attention in multidimensional scaling applications. The reader is referred to other references for additional insight (Chatfield and Collins 1980; Marriott 1974; and Mardia et al. 1979).