A New Graphical Approach to Classify Spatial Point Patterns Based on Hierarchical Cluster Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, a novel graphical method to classify spatial point patterns is proposed. This method is called the AG-curve. It is constructed using the results of hierarchical cluster analysis, and it has many variations corresponding to the various agglomeration methods used in such analysis. The characteristics of the AGsi-curve, which is a variant of the AG-curve, are clarified and several applications to real data are shown. The classification performance of the AGsi-curve is compared with that of other graphical methods, and the difference between the AGsi-curve and the other methods is shown graphically.