AM3-3 - Shape

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Author and Citation Info: 

DiBiase, D., DeMers, M., Johnson, A., Kemp, K., Luck, A. T., Plewe, B., and Wentz, E. (2006). Shape. The Geographic Information Science & Technology Body of Knowledge. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers. (2nd Quarter 2016, first digital).

Learning Objectives: 
  • Identify situations in which shape affects geometric operations
  • Develop a method for describing the shape of a cluster of similarly valued points by using the concept of the convex hull
  • Develop an algorithm to determine the skeleton of polygons
  • Find centroids of polygons under different definitions of a centroid and different polygon shapes
  • Calculate several different shape indices for a polygon dataset
  • Compare and contrast different shape indices, include examples of applications to which each could be applied
  • Explain what is meant by the convex hull and minimum enclosing rectangle of a set of point data
  • Exemplify situations in which the centroid of a polygon falls outside its boundary
  • Explain why the shape of an object might be important in analysis