Partition Modelling
J Ferreira, David G. T. Denison, C Holmes · 2002
Introduction This chapter serves as an introduction to the use of partition models to estimate a spatial process z(x) over some p-dimensional region of interest X . Partition models can be useful modelling tools as, unlike standard spatial models (e.g. kriging) they allow the correlation structure between points to vary over the space of interest. Typically, the correlation between points is assumed to be a xed function which is most likely to be parameterised by a few variables that can be estimated from the data (see, for example, Diggle, Tawn and Moyeed (1998)). Partition models avoid the need for preexamination of the data to nd a suitable correlation function to use. This removes the bias necessarily introduced by picking the correlation function and estimating its parameters using the same set of data. Spatial clusters are, by their nature, regions which are not representative of the entire space of intere