  We have investigated the effect of spatial resolution on determining
pencil-beam like velocity widths and column densities in galaxies. Three 21-cm
datasets are used, the HIPASS galaxy catalogue, a subset of HIPASS galaxies
with ATCA maps and a high-resolution image of the LMC. Velocity widths measured
from 21-cm emission in local galaxies are compared with those measured in
intermediate redshift Damped Lyman alpha (DLA) absorbers. We conclude that
spatial resolution has a severe effect on measuring pencil-beam like velocity
widths in galaxies. Spatial smoothing by a factor of 240 is shown to increase
the median velocity width by a factor of two. Thus any difference between
velocity widths measured from global profiles or low spatial resolution 21-cm
maps at z=0 and DLAs at z>1 cannot unambiguously be attributed to galaxy
evolution. The effect on column density measurements is less severe and the
values of dN/dz from local low-resolution 21-cm measurements are expected to be
overestimated by only ~10 per cent.
