Spatial Scale of Crop-Yield Models: A Review of the Relationship Between Scale of Models and Accuracy

The final usefulness of the physiologically based weather-crop yield models now being developed will depend in part upon the degree to which point observations of weather phenomena can be extended to surrounding regions. This report reviews methods of estimating areal data from point estimates, methods of relating macro and micro climatic data, and discusses the conflicts involved in treating such problems as accuracy vs. scale, correlation decay, and limits of scale interpolation. Two areas of investigation that could be pursued with respect to these problems would involve the use of either "synoptic climatology" or of data interpolation methods. Of these two methods, a synoptic classification procedure seems more desirable.