A Geostatistical Block Simulation Approach for Generating Fine-scale Categorical Thematic Maps from Coarse-scale Fraction Data

In any applications using various types of spatial data, it is very important to account for the scale differences among available data sets and to change the scale to the target one as well. In this paper, we propose to use a geostatistical downscaling approach based on vaiorgram deconvloution and block simulation to generate fine-scale categorical thematic maps from coarse-scale fraction data. First, an iterative variogram deconvolution method is applied to estimate a point-support variogram model from a block-support variogram model. Then, both a direct sequential simulation based on area-to-point kriging and the estimated point-support variogram are applied to produce alternative fine-scale fraction realizations. Finally, a maximum a posteriori decision rule is applied to generate the fine-scale categorical thematic maps. These analytical steps are illustrated through a case study of land-cover mapping only using the block fraction data of thematic classes without point data. Alternative fine-scale fraction maps by the downscaling method presented in this study reproduce the coarse-scale block fraction values. The final fine-scale land-cover realizations can reflect overall spatial patterns of the reference land-cover map, thus providing reasonable inputs for the impact assessment in change of support problems.