In this lecture, Dr. Tom Rudel presents two examples of the use of spatial methods to understand the difference and stratification in human impacts on the landscape. He presents one example of suburban sprawl in New Jersey and discusses the use of geospatial data and spatial regression to characterize stratification and development patterns. He then presents a second example of land-use change and agricultural management in Ecuador. He describes the research questions and the process of combining remote sensing data with household surveys and interviews to understand the drivers of difference in tree cover in pasture lands. He uses the example to illustrate how to interpret spatial stratification in the social and natural context within which it occurs.