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A If the objects you're considering have a noticeable area (eg shops, towns),
B you also need to consider whereabouts in it you are measuring to. For shops,
travelling it should normally be the doorway (since you are interested in the distance
distance people travel to enter the shop), but with towns, you should consider the
centre of it.
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168 Nearest Neigbour Index Geo Factsheet
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increasingly clustered increasingly dispersed planted, you would be looking for dispersion as your alternative.) If in doubt,
use the first version of H1.
Some points to watch out for: If you are considering the non-directional alternative, you are doing a
If the formula is to be valid, it assumes that points are free to locate 2-tailed test; a directional alternative means a 1-tailed test. This is
anywhere in the region you are considering. This is not always true! For important when it comes to looking up values in statistical tables.
example: The tables for nearest neighbour have two parts - one for clustered and one
distribution of settlements in a region with a large lake for dispersed results.
distribution of shops around a large tourist attraction such as a castle
If your alternative hypothesis is You use
The formula will not distinguish H1: The distribution is not random Both tables, 2-tailed test
between regions with one cluster and H1: The distribution is clustered Clustered table, 1-tailed test
regions with several. This is H1: The distribution is dispersed Dispersed table, 1-tailed test
particularly apparent if you are using
boundaries rather than smallest
Clustered Significance levels (0.05 = 5%) Dispersed
rectangle to enclose the points.
1-tailed 0.1 0.05 0.025 0.01 1-tailed 0.1 0.05 0.025 0.01
You may be able to address this by subdividing the region, if there is a 2-tailed 0.2 0.1 0.05 0.02 2-tailed 0.2 0.1 0.05 0.02
legitimate reason for doing so (other than just the distribution of points!) 2 0.527 0.392 0.276 0.140 2 1.473 1.608 1.725 1.860
3 0.614 0.504 0.409 0.298 3 1.386 1.497 1.592 1.702
4 0.666 0.570 0.488 0.392 4 1.335 1.430 1.512 1.608
A mixture of clustered and dispersed 5 0.701 0.616 0.542 0.456 5 1.299 1.385 1.458 1.544
patterns may well give a result that 6 0.727 0.649 0.582 0.504 6 1.273 1.351 1.418 1.497
7 0.747 0.675 0.613 0.540 7 1.253 1.325 1.387 1.460
appears "random" Again, splitting
the region up could be worth No. of points
considering.
The tables provide a "cut off" value to tell you what counts as "clustered
A combination of separate patterns enough" or "dispersed enough" to enable you to reject your null hypothesis.
like this may occur in a town If you don't get a result that is significant, you have to accept your null
hypothesis - that the distribution is random.
containing different, well-defined shopping regions - for example, one
near a tourist attraction and one in the main High street. We will consider doing the test at the 5% significance level with 7 points.
If you consider the same pattern on different scales you may get very If we used H1: The distribution is not random:
different results. This may be an issue if you are considering an area Tables values: 0.613 (clustered) & 1.387 (dispersed) (remember it's 2-tailed)
defined by an administrative boundary or similar, as the official "boundary" Reject H0 Accept H0 Reject H0
may be some way outside the actual town (it's not random) (it's random) (it's not random)