Spatial Analysis

Analysis is “spatial” if the results of an experiment or investigation are likely to depend on how the bounding frame of a representation is delineated. A “representation” can be thought of as any kind of simplification of the seeming infinite complexity of reality—as encapsulated, for example, in the ontologies that structure digital representation in geographic information systems (GIS) and geographic information science (GIScience). The frame may be used to bound any space, at any scale, anywhere—so one can conduct spatial analysis of the organs of the human body, for example, or of the canals of Mars. In definitional terms, the realm of geographical analysis is somewhat more restrictive in that it pertains to analysis of Earth's surface or near surface at scales that range from the architectural to the global.

Today, GIS provides the environment for much of the activity that is described as spatial analysis and makes it possible to harness powerful ideas embodied in software to achieve excellence in visual communication. Spatial analysis helps us understand not only the form but also the functioning of physical, environmental, and human systems at any appropriate spatial and temporal scale. As such, it facilitates generalization while also preserving relevant unique attributes of “places” and particular time periods. Paul Longley and colleagues describe how spatial analysis in GIS helps bring together the idiographic tradition in geography (which emphasizes the uniqueness of places) and the nomothetic (which emphasizes the generality of processes), in a science that is directly relevant to practical problem solving. As such, spatial analysis is of interest and applicability well beyond the realm of academia.

Spatial analysis has roots in many sciences, ranging from geography and the Earth sciences to architecture, urban planning, and ecology. Some of these origins can be traced to the development of quantitative methods in geography, macroeconomics, and the Earth sciences, as well as the discipline of regional science. Spatial statistics and locational analysis dominated the quantitative geography of the 1960s, with the development and application of techniques that together laid the foundations of a new scientific geography. These developments culminated in the reader Spatial Analysis, edited by Brian Berry and Duane Marble and published in 1968, and the tradition retains a core following in geography today.

The practice of spatial analysis changed profoundly with the advent of the Internet, in line with broader developments in the practice of environmental and social science. The client-server architectures that developed in the 1990s have been augmented by data inputs and feeds to and from the smallest of handheld devices, and the innovation of “sensor webs” has opened up new prospects for spatial analysis based on measurement and monitoring in real time. It has also developed alongside the drives to interdisciplinary science, multidisciplinary team working, and increasingly problem-centered approaches to scientific practice. Yet despite these far-reaching changes, many of the core themes of spatial analysis and modeling remain fundamentally unchanged [Page 2604]from those addressed by quantitative geographers in the 1960s. of particular importance are issues of spatial and temporal granularity, representation of human behavior, uncertainty in representation, visualization and user interaction, representation of dynamics and spatial process, and policy application through questions of planning and design. These are core to the various research agendas of GIScience.

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