Geographic Knowledge Discovery

Synonyms

Spatial data mining; Geographic data mining; Exploratory spatial analysis; Pattern recognition in spatial data; Hypothesis validation in spatial data

Definition

Geographic knowledge discovery (GKD) is the human-centered process of using computational methods and visualization to explore massive geo-referenced digital databases for novel and useful geographic knowledge. GKD is an extension of the more commonly known process of knowledge discovery from databases (KDD), with “data mining” being a central activity of this process.

Main Text

Geographic information science exists in an increasingly data-rich environment facilitated by the development of high spatial and temporal resolution environmental monitoring devices, location-aware technologies, information infrastructure for data sharing and interoperability, as well as reductions in data storage costs. Traditional spatial analytical methods were developed when data collection was expensive and computational power was weak....