Two-Dimensional Systematic Sampling of Land Use

Abstract

SUMMARY In this paper two-dimensional systematic sampling of land use is considered. Data for two study areas which provide a complete enumeration of land use, and which are held in digital form, are a basis for a series of sampling experiments. First, the efficiency of systematic sampling is compared with other schemes. Second, these results are related to the autocorrelation functions of the data. Third, methods for estimating sampling error from a single sample are assessed. The results reported here confirm the statistical efficiency of systematic sampling but also highlight some important unresolved issues of this approach.