Spatial Analytical Perspectives On Gis

The ability to manipulate spatial data in different forms and to extract additional meaning from them is at the heart of GIS, yet genuine spatial analysis tools are rarely incorporated into commercial software, thus seriously limiting their usefulness. The future of GIS technology wil depend largely on the incorporation of more powerful analytical and modelling functions - and there is agreement within the GIS community of the urgent need to address these issues. This text attempts this task. It presents the latest information on incorporating spatial analysis tools into GIS, and includes concepts and applications from both the environmental and socio-econimc sciences.

The ability to manipulate spatial data in different forms and to extract additional meaning from them is at the heart of GIS, yet genuine spatial analysis tools are rarely incorporated into commercial software, thus seriously limiting their usefulness. The future of GIS technology wil depend largely on the incorporation of more powerful analytical and modelling functions - and there is agreement within the GIS community of the urgent need to address these issues. This text attempts this task. It presents the latest information on incorporating spatial analysis tools into GIS, and includes concepts and applications from both the environmental and socio-econimc sciences.

Spatial data analysis has seen explosive growth in recent years. Both in mainstream statistics and econometrics as well as in many applied ?elds, the attention to space, location, and interaction has become an important feature of scholarly work. The methodsdevelopedto dealwith problemsofspatialpatternrecognition,spatialau- correlation, and spatial heterogeneity have seen greatly increased adoption, in part due to the availability of user friendlydesktopsoftware. Throughhis theoretical and appliedwork,ArthurGetishasbeena majorcontributing?gureinthisdevelopment. In this volume, we take both a retrospective and a prospective view of the ?eld. We use the occasion of the retirement and move to emeritus status of Arthur Getis to highlight the contributions of his work. In addition, we aim to place it into perspective in light of the current state of the art and future directions in spatial data analysis. To this end, we elected to combine reprints of selected classic contributions by Getiswithchapterswrittenbykeyspatialscientists.Thesescholarswerespeci?cally invited to react to the earlier work by Getis with an eye toward assessing its impact, tracing out the evolution of related research, and to re?ect on the future broadening of spatial analysis. The organizationof the book follows four main themes in Getis’ contributions: • Spatial analysis • Pattern analysis • Local statistics • Applications For each of these themes, the chapters provide a historical perspective on early methodological developments and theoretical insights, assessments of these c- tributions in light of the current state of the art, as well as descriptions of new techniques and applications.

Geographic information systems represent an exciting and rapidly expanding technology via which spatial data may be captured, stored, retrieved, displayed, manipulated and analysed. Applications of this technology include detailed inventories of land use parcels. Spatial patterns of disease, geodemographics, environmental management and macroscale inventories of global resources. The impetus for this book is the relative lack of research into the integration of spatial analysis and GIS, and the potential benefits in developing such an integration. From a GIS perspective, there is an increasing demand for systems that do something other than display and organize data. From a spatial analytical perspective, there are advantages to linking statistical methods and mathematical models to the database and display capabilities of a GIS. Although the GIS may not be absolutely necessary for spatial analysis, it can facilitate such an analysis and moreover provide insights that might otherwise have been missed. The contributions to the book tell us where we are and where we ought to be going. It suggests that the integration of spatial analysis and GIS will stimulate interest in quantitative spatial science, particularly exploratory and visual types of analysis and represents a unique statement of the state-of-the-art issues in integration and interface.

Integrating a discussion of the application of quantitative methods with practical examples, this book explains the philosophy of the quantitative methodologies. It discusses issues such as: the nature of modern quantitative geography; spatial data; geographical information systems; visualization; local analysis; and point pattern analysis.

Advanced work on GIS applications in such fields as urban planning, transportation, and economic development

Integrating a discussion of the application of quantitative methods with practical examples, this book explains the philosophy of the new quantitative methodologies and contrasts them with the methods associated with geography′s `Quantitative Revolution′ of the 1960s. Key issues discussed include: the nature of modern quantitative geography; spatial data; geographical information systems; visualization; local analysis; point pattern analysis; spatial regression; and statistical inference. Concluding with a review of models used in spatial theory, the authors discuss the current challenges to spatial data analysis. Written to be accessible, to communicate the diversity and excitement of recent thinking, Quantitative Geography will be required reading for students and researchers in any discipline where quantitative methods are used to analyse spatial data. `This is a veritable tour de force of everything that is exciting about quantitative geography and GIS. It is a timely, thorough and exciting account of the state of the art and science of spatial analysis′ - Paul Longley, University of Bristol `A highly innovative and up-to-date text. It is unique in its coverage of the many developments that have taken place in the field over the past few years. The book is one that is highly readable and stimulating for those with some background in the field, and its expositional style and many examples will make it stimulating to newcomers as well′ - Peter Rogerson, State University of New York at Buffalo `Brings the field thoroughly up to date, integrating modern methods of GIS with a comprehensive and easy-to-read overview of the most recent and powerful techniques of spatial analysis. The book will be valuable to students and researchers in any discipline that seeks to explore or explain phenomena in geographical context, and will make excellent reading for geographers, political scientists, criminologists, anthropologists, geologists, epidemiologists, ecologists, and many others. It offers a spirited challenge to critics of a scientific approach to social science, and demonstrates the value of its subject matter through abundant examples′ - Michael Goodchild, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of California, Santa Barbara `There is a view within some parts of academic geography that what used to be called "quantitative geography" is dead, having been subsumed within "geographical information systems" or else of no continuing interest. This book should correct this view. First, it shows that quantitative methods have remained an exciting area of development and, second, it shows that, if anything, they have more relevance to substantive problems of interest than they have ever had. Although not specifically about GIS, it is a book that should be read by everyone concerned with the analysis of geographical information′ - David Unwin, Birkbeck College, University of London

This book presents a spatially-based multiple methods approach to research serving academic and organizational researchers from across a wide variety of disciplines. For many, consideration of spatial relationships is an important component of their research questions, including those who may not have yet recognized GIS as a valuable tool. The book will provide readers essential steps to conceptualize and implement research and analysis, develop meaningful quantitative and qualitative geographic results and to communicate their findings using the visualization capabilities of GIS to assist decision-makers and affect policy. Furthermore it offers researchers a deeper understanding of social, economic and environmental questions considering spatial relationships in their data.The broad subject area of the project is the integration of spatial analysis as a research methodology. More specifically the book provides practical guidance for the identification, collection and analysis of appropriate research data for analysis in an Esri/ArcGIS context without being specific to a particular version of the software. The objective is to present ArcGIS with an eye towards incorporating spatial analysis as a fundamental component of mixed methods research. Because GIS is, by nature, an integrative technology which can draw together multiple data sources via a common spatial attribute, it is a natural fit for mixed-methods research. GIS provides the researcher an unparalleled ability to enhance their research incorporating a geographic perspective.