Nearest Neighbour Analysis

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Nearest Neighbour Analysis

• Settlement Geography

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Learning outcomes

• To study the nearest neighbour analysis and how
  it determines patterns of settlements

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Nearest Neighbour Analysis

• Settlements often appear on maps as dots
• The patterns of these dots are difficult to
  describe
• Sometimes patterns are obvious
• Nucleated
• Dispersed
• However the pattern is likely to lie between
  these two extremes
• Nearest neighbour helps to determine the pattern

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The technique

• Was devised by a botanist to determine plant
  distributions
• Allows one region to be compared to another
• It is only a technique and offers no explanation
  of patterns

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Formula

• The formula is
• Rn 2d vn/A
• Rn The description of the distribution
• d The mean distance between the nearest
  neighbours
• n the number of settlements in the study area
• A the area under study (km)

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Rn

• Rn is the description of the settlement
  distribution
• This can be as follows
• Clustering- where dots are very close together.
  In extreme cases the value of Rn0
• Random- distributions occur where there is no
  pattern at all. Rn 1
• Regular- these are perfectly uniform. If ever
  found in reality they would have a value of 2.15

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Nearest Neighbour values

• See page 402 in Waugh