Describe where features are first. Then use other evidence to explain why they are there.
A region is an area grouped by a shared feature or connection. A residential region has a similar main land use. A clinic's sphere of influence is the area from which it attracts patients. This service region may overlap another clinic's and cross administrative boundaries.
A spatial pattern describes how one type of feature is arranged. Shops may cluster around a centre, trees may form a line beside a road, or bus stops may be spaced at regular intervals. Name the feature, describe its arrangement and give a location. Include exceptions, such as one clinic away from the main cluster.
A spatial association compares the locations of two types of feature. For example, clinics may tend to lie near stations. This suggests a relationship worth investigating, but does not explain why it exists.
The station might have attracted the clinics. The clinics might have influenced station planning. Both might have followed growth in the residential population. Opening dates, planning records and patients' travel information can help test these explanations.
Step by step
Describe
Identify the feature, its arrangement, a location and an exception.
Compare
Use a second mapped feature to test whether the two tend to occur together.
Investigate
Collect timing or travel evidence before deciding why they are associated.
Worked example: Nearby does not prove why
In an invented town, four of five clinics are within 300 m of a station. That supports a spatial association. If interviews show that many patients arrive by train, access by rail becomes a stronger explanation. The interviews still do not establish the full history of where the clinics were built.
Watch out for this
Two features close together must have caused each other.
Nearby features may be related, but they may also share another cause or be close by chance. Check the evidence before deciding what caused what.
Check your understanding
Which statement correctly identifies a spatial association?
- Shops form a line along the eastern road.
- Playgrounds tend to lie close to clusters of homes.
- Playgrounds are popular, so every household caused one to be built.