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, the multidimensional scaling method has been applied to visualize approximate Iodations of eleven sampled 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-dimensional plot and 'R' package has been used in plotting the approximate locations.