What you see is not what is there: Mechanisms, models, and methods for point pattern deviations

TL;DR

This paper reviews how errors in observing point patterns in natural systems can cause deviations from actual patterns, and discusses models and methods to address these inaccuracies, supported by scientific examples.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of mechanisms, models, and methods for handling point pattern deviations due to observation errors in various natural systems.

Findings

Identifies key sources of observation errors in point patterns

Reviews existing models and methods for correcting deviations

Illustrates concepts with scientific examples

Abstract

Many natural systems are observed as point patterns in time, space, or space and time. Examples include plant and cellular systems, animal colonies, earthquakes, and wildfires. In practice the locations of the points are not always observed correctly. However, in the point process literature, there has been relatively scant attention paid to the issue of errors in the location of points. In this paper, we discuss how the observed point pattern may deviate from the actual point pattern and review methods and models that exist to handle such deviations. The discussion is supplemented with several scientific illustrations.