APPROXIMATE LOCATIONS OF SOME LOCAL GOVERNMENT HEADQUARTERS IN KEBBI STATE USING MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING TECHNIQUE

Abstract

Multidimensional scaling is a technique used to picture, visualize or locate objects in a map or Shepard diagram, Buja et ai, (2004). In this dissertation multidimensional i I . scaling method has been applied to visualize approximate Iodations of eleven sampled i local governments in Kebbi State. The symmetric distance matrix 'D' has been processed from an atlas of Nigeria by Eunice, (1979). The data has been transformed into inner-product matrix B by double centering, using Mardis et al (1979), Su and Chang (2000), Hardle and Simax (2003) methodology to arrive at the required results. Matrix B has been analyzed using MATLAB Software to: obtain eigenvalues and eigenvectors. From the results of analysis, the first 2 eigenvalues are large and positive, which signifies goodness of fit (strain measure). It also indicates that it is a 2- I dimensional plot and 'R' package has been used in plotting the approximate locations.