The Research Progress of Areal Interpolation
面插值的研究进展

In a broad sense, spatial interpolation includes point interpolation and areal interpolation. In this article these two types of interpolation methods were reviewed and the areal interpolation which was not very popular to major people was especially introduced according to whether the interpolation methods use ancillary data or not. In the areal interpolation methods without using ancillary data, the algorithm and its characteristic of the following methods were introduced: point-based areal interpolation, areal-weighted interpolation, areal-weighted interpolation using control zones and pycnophylactic method. In the areal interpolation methods using ancillary data, the EM algorithm and the method using remote sensing data as ancillary data were introduced. And the special case of areal interpolation - statistics variables spatialization-was also introduced. In the end, these two types of interpolation methods were compared and the main research trend of areal interpolation was foreseen.