Spatial Factor Models for High-Dimensional and Large Spatial Data: An Application in Forest Variable Mapping

DOI10.5705/SS.202018.0005zbMATH Open1421.62161arXiv1801.02078OpenAlexW2963038642WikidataQ104459951 ScholiaQ104459951MaRDI QIDQ5226629FDOQ5226629

Douglas C. Morton, Hans-Erik Andersen, Daniel Taylor-Rodríguez, Abhirup Datta, Sudipto Banerjee, Chad Babcock, Andrew O. Finley, Bruce D. Cook

Publication date: 1 August 2019

Published in: STATISTICA SINICA (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Gathering information about forest variables is an expensive and arduous activity. As such, directly collecting the data required to produce high-resolution maps over large spatial domains is infeasible. Next generation collection initiatives of remotely sensed Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data are specifically aimed at producing complete-coverage maps over large spatial domains. Given that LiDAR data and forest characteristics are often strongly correlated, it is possible to make use of the former to model, predict, and map forest variables over regions of interest. This entails dealing with the high-dimensional ($sim$$10^2$) spatially dependent LiDAR outcomes over a large number of locations (~10^5-10^6). With this in mind, we develop the Spatial Factor Nearest Neighbor Gaussian Process (SF-NNGP) model, and embed it in a two-stage approach that connects the spatial structure found in LiDAR signals with forest variables. We provide a simulation experiment that demonstrates inferential and predictive performance of the SF-NNGP, and use the two-stage modeling strategy to generate complete-coverage maps of forest variables with associated uncertainty over a large region of boreal forests in interior Alaska.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.02078

zbMATH Keywords

spatial predictionforest outcomesLiDAR datanearest neighbor Gaussian processes

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Directional data; spatial statistics (62H11) Gaussian processes (60G15) Applications of statistics to environmental and related topics (62P12)

Cited In (11)

• Parallel cross-validation: a scalable fitting method for Gaussian process models
• Modeling Massive Highly Multivariate Nonstationary Spatial Data with the Basis Graphical Lasso
• A case study competition among methods for analyzing large spatial data
• Spatial factor modeling: A Bayesian matrix‐normal approach for misaligned data
• Structured prior distributions for the covariance matrix in latent factor models
• Nearest-neighbor sparse Cholesky matrices in spatial statistics
• Constrained Functional Regression of National Forest Inventory Data Over Time Using Remote Sensing Observations
• Analyzing environmental-trait interactions in ecological communities with fourth-corner latent variable models
• High-dimensional multivariate geostatistics: a Bayesian matrix-normal approach
• Conjugate sparse plus low rank models for efficient Bayesian interpolation of large spatial data
• Highly Scalable Bayesian Geostatistical Modeling via Meshed Gaussian Processes on Partitioned Domains

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