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This module introduces you to the concepts and methods required to assess the quality of a spatial or geospatial network. It includes perspectives on and approaches for quality assessment using measures of precision and measures of reliability, and covers the following:
- A brief treatment of the trade offs in network design between precision, reliability, and cost of the survey campaign
- A second look at local measures of precision to follow from we saw in our earlier module
- A deep dive on diagonalization and a geometric interpretation of variance, covariance, correlation, and eigenvalues (this lesson includes my own cheat sheet for understanding these concepts and making me efficient on an exam, and a few questions from an old final exam)
- An overview of some common global measures of precision
- An introduction to the concept reliability, including internal and external reliability
- An introduction to the concept of data snooping as it applies to spatial networks
- Treatment of how some important aspects of quality assessment can be done before you ever go to the field (despite what I say in the first sentence in the video below about where it fits in our framework)
My own notes
I’m still assuming that you’re building your own “perfect set of notes” as you go through this material – to make sure you have a succinct reference to help you be efficient on a test or in your future work. So, I’m sharing my own notes here with you to help with that.
The self-assessment problems
My usual practice in a course like this is to share some problems with you so you can assess your understanding of the material. These are embedded after the lessons below.
So, dig into these problems either after you’ve finished looking at the material or as you go. Hustle to figure out the answers. Leave no stone unturned. Get help if you need it. Like the notes, I’m going to assume you’re building the “perfect set of reference problems” to help you be efficient in a test or to look back at in practice.
If you’re taking this course from me as part of a university class then these are a great way to study. I can’t ask exactly the same questions on a test, of course, but I do generally design the problems in a way that you can expect to do as well in the formal assessments as you can do on these self-assessment questions.
And there’s also a lab that integrates quite closely with this material. (Stay tuned for the link.) I recommend doing this as you go through this module.
Okay, now get started by clicking through the lessons below!
