2004 UC Proceedings Abstract
A Matter of Scale: The Ecologic Fallacy in Spatial Analysis Track: Health and Human Services Author(s): Buffy Quinn GIS is more widely used in the arenas of public health and medical geography than ever before. And, just as with other disciplines, this area of research benefits from the power of GIS to perform tasks related to the linking of disparate data sources, performing statistical analyses, and mapping. However, although spatial correlation is easy to determine using GIS, the researcher must understand that what happens at the group level doesn't necessarily occur at the individual level. This mistake of applying information across scales is known as the "ecologic fallacy." This presentation offers a case study where the ecologic fallacy was committed, and the ramifications of that mistake. The author also offers suggestions for avoiding this error in spatial analysis for researchers who are performing human health research. Buffy Quinn Parsons 290 Elwood Davis Road Liverpool , NY 13088 US Phone: 315-451-9560 Fax: 315-451-9570 E-mail: buffy.quinn@parsons.com |
|||||
