Triangulated irregular network interpolation method in spatial analysis

Abstract

Spatial analysis makes it possible to obtain additional information from geospatial data by performing operations on their calculation. Usually spatial analysis is conducted on GIS platforms such as ArcGIS, QGIS and other software products. They possess specialized spatial analysis tools for object statistics as well as for geoprocessing. One of the mentioned tools is interpolation, which gives an opportunity to create a continuous surface by selected point values. However, the use of this tool depends on the application area, for instance, hydrology, ecology, etc. Each GIS platform user defines the tools that should be used depending on what kind of problems it is necessary to solve. Moreover, since spatial analysis is a complex process, there is a problem on the choice of interpolation method, because each of them has its own peculiarities. The most common method is TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) according to which the surface is built with a help of triangulation of a set of points, which represents a form of vector digital geospatial data. Furthermore, this method includes the Delaunay criterion, where the circle described around each triangle does not contain the initial data set inside. The article describes the advantages and disadvantages of the TIN method, as well as the analysis function of surfaces on GIS platforms taking into account the functionality of the method. In addition, there are given several recommendations for choosing an interpolation method for spatial analysis, since some of them are more accurate and useful than others, but the calculation takes longer than usual. In practice, the choice of a specific method of interpolation should depend on selective data (sampling data), the type of surfaces to be generated, and the level of evaluation errors.