Overview
• Research in geography
• Types of geographic research questions
• Quantitative versus qualitative research
approaches
• Using GIS for research in geography
Why do we do research in
geography?
Research for exploration
• Investigation of little-understood
phenomena
• Identification of important variables
• Generation of questions for further research
Research for description
• To describe and characterize patterns and
phenomena
• To document patterns and phenomena of
interest
Research for explanation and
understanding
• To explain what caused an observed pattern
or phenomena
• To explain why a pattern or phenomena is
characterized the way it is
• To understand processes and interactions
between people, places, and phenomena
Research for prediction
• To predict future patterns or outcomes for
different phenomena
• To forecast events and behaviors resulting
from different phenomena
Types of research questions in
geography
•
•
•
•
•
Exploratory questions: learn about a new issue
Descriptive questions: describe a phenomenon
Explanatory questions: explain a phenomenon
Predictive questions: predicting future patterns
Research studies often include two or more types
of research questions
GIS can be used to answer all
types of research questions:
• Exploratory: Is there a spatial pattern?
• Descriptive: Has the pattern changed over
time?
• Explanatory: What caused a pattern to
change?
• Predictive: What do we expect the pattern to
look like in the future?
GIS can be applied in both
quantitative and qualitative research
studies
Quantitative research approaches
• Application of numerical analytical
techniques to address geographic research
questions (of all types)
• Defined as the collection, classification,
presentation, and analysis of numerical data
Qualitative research approaches
• Use non-numerical information (e.g.
conversations, artifacts, visual images)
• Entails a wide range of approaches such as
unstructured interviews, ethnography,
content analysis
• Shared belief in grounded theory (generate
theory from information that the researcher
collects)
All quantitative analysis is based on
qualitative judgements (e.g. quantitative
survey of quality of life in Oslo)
• Did the respondent understand the question?
• Did the respondent understand your answer
scheme (e.g. 1 = agree; 2 = disagree) ?
• Did the respondent realize the questions
were only about living in Oslo?
• Was the respondent answering honestly or
just randomly?
All qualitative data can be measured and
coded using quantitative methods (e.g.
unstructured interviews about quality of
life in Oslo
• Code responses in an open-ended interview with
numbers that refer to data specific references
• For example, code the factors that people see as
reflecting high quality of life (e.g., bars, skiing)
• Quantitative research can therefore be generated
from qualitative inquiries.
What’s the real difference between
research approaches?
• The major difference between qualitative and
quantitative research stems from the researcher’s
underlying strategies.
• Quantitative research is viewed as confirmatory
and deductive in nature (use data to test theories)
• Qualitative research is considered to be
exploratory and inductive (gather the data and
learn what’s happening from the data and then
generate theories)
Questions to consider for qualitative
versus quantifative research
• Is your aim the generation of new theories or
hypothesis?
• Do you need to obtain a deep understanding of an
issue? Is the issue too complex to quantify? (what
does it mean to be poor in Oslo today?)
• Are you willing to trade detail for generalizability?
(e.g., someone’s experience of poverty vs. a
quantifiable measure of income levels)
GIS is a tool for all types of
research questions and research
approaches
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•
•
•
GIS and quantitative, descriptive analysis
GIS and quantitative, explanatory analysis
GIS and qualitative, descriptive analysis
GIS and qualitative exploratory analysis
GIS and Quantitative Analysis:
Vulnerability to climate change and
economic changes in Indian agriculture
Context
• Agriculture in India
– 27 % GDP
– 700 million people
– more than 60 % is rainfed cultivation
• Both climate change and economic globalization
are ongoing processes with uneven impacts. Indian
agriculture will be confronted by both processes
simultaneously, leading to changing patterns of
vulnerability.
Main objectives
• Assess vulnerability of agriculture to climate
change in the context of economic changes
• Use GIS to identify highly vulnerable areas and
social groups
• Interview farmers in highly vulnerable areas to
understand how farmers are coping with climatic
and economic changes
Methodology
• GIS-based vulnerability profile
• Village-level case studies
• Integration of macro- and micro- scale
analyses
Globalization vulnerability
Climate Change Vulnerability
Double Exposure: Areas that are
Vulnerable to both Climate Change and
Globalization
Case study approach
• Questionnaire-based survey
–
–
–
–
Economic status
Agricultural practices
Coping mechanisms
Access to facilities (electricity,
irrigation, health, education,
loans, etc)
• Participatory rural appraisals
• Focus group discussions with
small and marginal farmers
• One-to-one meetings with
village heads and district
administrative officers
GIS and Quantitative Methods
• GIS can also be combined with statistical
techniques such as correlation and regression
• Correlation: are observations correlated across
space (e.g. do high income counties cluster
together)
• Regression analysis: incorporate correlation across
space into a spatial regression model
GIS and Quantitative
Explanatory Analysis:
Accounting for Income Variation
on American Indian Tribal Areas
Rural Poverty and Tribal Areas
• Persistent poverty is an enduring problem for rural
areas
• In the US, persistent rural poverty is especially
evident on tribal lands
• Tribal lands also tend to be located in very
“marginal places”
• Cross-sectional economic and geographic
literature has paid relatively little attention to tribal
areas (despite many case studies)
Research Questions
1. Are there significant differences in per
capita income levels between tribal and
non-tribal areas, after controlling for
locational and other characteristics?
2. Across tribal spatial areas, what accounts
for income level variation?
Tribal Counties in the
United States
Reservation and Trust Area
N
No tribal area
OTSA-TDSA area
1000
0
W
1000
E
2000 Miles
S
Per Capita Income (1999)
Per Capita Income (1999)
4896 - 19382
19383 - 24423
24424 - 33398
33399 - 81665
N
W
1000
0
1000
E
2000 Miles
S
Per Capita Income (1999)
and high AI share counties
High AI-share
Per Capita Income (1999)
4896 - 19382
19383 - 24423
24424 - 33398
33399 - 81665
1000
0
N
W
1000
E
2000 Miles
S
What might explain variation in
spatial income levels?
• Locational factors: proximity to urban areas, cost
of living, natural amenities, transport
infrastructure
• Structural factors: industry structure (shares in
manufacturing, agriculture/resources, federal gov)
unemployment rate
• Individual factors: educational attainment, agestructure of the population
• Tribal and social capital: AI population share,
presence collective economic activity (gaming),
type of tribal area (presence of tribal land base)
Key Findings
• Locational, Structural and Individual factors
all matter in accounting for income
variation across all county groupings,
including all tribal types of tribal counties
• Consistent factors include market size,
unemployment, educational attainment, and
shares of retirement-age population
Key Findings
• Tribal counties do not have significantly
different income levels than other counties
(once locational and other factors are
controlled)
• But, tribal and nontribal counties with high
shares of American Indians do have
significantly lower incomes than other
counties (even controlling for other factors)
GIS and Qualitiative Methods
• GIS has historically been applied primarily
to quantitative questions
• Newest frontier in GIS research entails use
of GIS in qualitative research
Marianna Pavlovskaya,
Professor of Geography
(CUNY-Hunter)
2002 "Mapping urban change and
changing GIS: Other views of
economic restructuring,"
forthcoming in Gender, Place and
Culture.
Research Questions
• How did the end of communism affect
people’s everyday lives?
• How did their participation in the economy
change (changes in the nature of work)?
• How did their access to consumer goods
changes?
Mei-Po Kwan, Professor of
Geography
(Ohio State University)
Evaluating Gender Differences in
Individual Accessibility: A Study
Using Trip Data Collected by the
Global Positioning System
Research Questions
• How do typical daily travel patterns vary
between men and women?
• What do these variations imply about
employment opportunities and leisure time
activities?
Summary
• GIS can be used to answer all types of research
questions, including exploratory, descriptive and
an explanatory questions
• GIS applies to both quantitative and qualitative
work
• The choice of GIS techniques depends on the type
of research questions that you are asking
• The research questions should always come
first