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Data Analysis, Spatial

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Encyclopedia of GIS

Synonyms

Spatial analysis; Geospatial analysis; Geographical analysis; Patterns; Anamolies; Spatial interaction; Point patterns; Geostatistics; GeoDa; Geographically weighted regression

Definition

Spatial data analysis refers to a set of techniques designed to find pattern, detect anomalies, or test hypotheses and theories, based on spatial data. More rigorously, a technique of analysis is spatial if and only if its results are not invariant under relocation of the objects of analysis—in other words, that location matters. The data that are subjected to spatial data analysis must record the locations of phenomena within some space, and very often that is the space of the Earth's surface and near-surface, in other words the geographic domain. However, many methods of spatial data analysis can prove useful in relation to other spaces; for example, there have been instances of methods of spatial data analysis being applied to the human brain or to the space of the human genome. The terms...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Michael F. Goodchild

Authors
  1. Michael F. Goodchild
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Shashi Shekhar (McKnight Distinguished University Professor) (McKnight Distinguished University Professor)

  2. Management Science and Information Systems Department, Rutgers Business School Newark and New Brunswick Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Hui Xiong (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Goodchild, M. (2008). Data Analysis, Spatial. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_236

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