PART II

CHAPTER I
SPATIAL DATA
ANALYSIS
Assist. Prof. Dr. Mahmut Çavur

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 CHAPTER I
Introduction to Spatial Data Analysis
Introduction
Spatial statistics deals with ways of analyzing all varieties of
data in a spatial context. Some of the examples of the kind of
problems can be listed as:

Seismologist collect data on the regional distribution of

earthquakes. Does this distribution show any pattern or
predictability over space?

Public health specialist collect data on the occurrence of

diseases. Does the distribution of cases of a disease form a
pattern in space? Is there some association with possible
sources of environmental pollution?
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Police wish to investigate if there is any spatial pattern
to the distribution of certain crime locations. Does the
rate of crime in particular areas correlate with socio-
economic characteristics of the area?

Geologist wish to estimate the extent of a mineral

deposit over a particular region, given data on borehole
samples taken from locations scattered across the area.
How can we make sensible estimates?

A groundwater hydrologist collects data on the

concentration of a toxic chemical in samples collected
from a series of wells. Can we use these samples to
construct a regional map of likely contamination?
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Retailers wish to use socio-economic data, available for
small areas from the population census, to assess the
likely demand for their products if they open or expand
an outlet. How are we to classify such areas? The same
retailers collect information on movements of shoppers
from residential zones to stores. Can we build models of
such flows? Can we predict changes in such flows if we
expand an outlet or open a new one?

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The subject of spatial data analysis is relevant in
many different fields such as:
Geographers
Statisticians
Economists
Sociologists
Epidemiologists
Planners
Biologists
Environmental scientists
Earth scientists
Engineers

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 1.2. Spatial Versus Non-spatial Data Analysis
Spatial data analysis deals with the situation where
observational data are available on some process
operating in space and methods are sought to describe
or explain the behavior of this process and its possible
relationship to other spatial phenomena.

The main purpose of the analysis is:

 To increase our basic understanding of the process

 To assess the evidence in favor of various hypotheses
concerning it
 To predict values in areas where observations have not
been made

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Spatial data analysis is involved when the data are
spatially located and explicit consideration is given to
possible importance of their spatial agreement or in the
interpretation of results.

 E.g. Consider the relationship between number of

plant species and geographical area for a set of small
islands. It is empirically suggested that the logarithm of
the number of species is related to the logarithm of the
area of the island.

Reason: As area increases there is a greater possibility of

a range of available habitats

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Spatial data analysis has nothing to do at this stage. In
other words one of the variables involved (area), which is
geographical, does not itself make the analysis a spatial one.

However, if we search for whether the isolation of an island

is an important factor, in terms of its distance from other
islands or from a continental area, this hypothesis is
handled in the context of spatial data analysis.

If the basic concern is to analyze the spatial interaction,

it is tried to determine whether there is an association
between a set of points and a set of lines or set of points and
set of areas

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 E.g.
Testing for the association between the occurrence of
mineral deposits (point data) and configurations of
geological lineaments (line data).

Testing the hypothesis that there is a link between

childhood leukemia (point data) and proximity to high
voltage power lines (line data).

Testing the existence of a relationship between a set of

plants (point data) and soil type (aerial unit).

Testing the existence of a relationship between the

incidence of Alzheimer’s disease (point data) and the
presence of aluminum in water sampled in a set of water
supply zones (aerial units).

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 E.g.
Consider it is intended to model spatial variation in precipitation in
California. Suppose we take a set of 30 monitoring stations,
distributed across the state.

Figure 1.1. Locations of rainfall measurement sites in California

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For each of the points we have recordings of:
Average annual precipitations (Y)
Altitude (X1)
Latitude (X2)
Distance from coast (X3)

A standard multiple linear repression model is fitted

to the data and it is found that three of the
independent variables are significant predictors of
rainfall with which 60 % of variation is explained
by them. (Non-spatial data analysis)

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Then the residuals (the differences between the observed
values of precipitation at the stations and those predicted
by regression model) are mapped in order to see if any
spatial pattern exists. This indicated that there is a
clustering of negative residuals on the leeward side of the
mountains. In other words the model over predicts
precipitation at these locations.

•This leads the researcher to introduce a new variable which

takes value of 1 if the location of the station is in the lee of
the mountain, 0 otherwise. With this variable added to the
regression model, the explained variation rose to 74 %.
(Spatial data analysis)

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 Relationship between Classes of Spatial Entities
Sometimes it is necessary to transform one class of objects
into another one.

Point to area transformation  Use of Thiessen Polygons

Area to point transformation  Use of centroids

This notion of "new objects for old" relates to the subject of

relations between entities. This relation can be of many types,
such as:

If the basic concern is to analyze the spatial arrangements of

points, this involves the measurement of distances between
points; distance is a spatial relation.
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 E.g.
Comparing the distribution of set of disease cases with a set
of healthy controls, which involve distance measurements.

If the basic concern is to analyze aerial data, simple

information about spatial adjacency may be of interest.
Usually spatial proximity is linked to attribute information.
In many cases, it is searched for whether areas close to each
other on the ground have similar values on one or more
attributes.

 E.g.
Do set of neighboring health districts tend to have the same
mortality rate? Do adjacent pixels in remote sensing tend to
have similar electromagnetic reflectance?
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 Facts on Attributes of Spatial Entities
If the attributes are treated alone, ignoring the spatial
relationships between sample locations, it cannot be claimed to
be doing spatial data analysis. In order to undertake spatial
data analysis it is required as a minimum, information on
location and usually both location and attributes.

If it is desired to study the spatial arrangement or pattern of

entities then this is essentially a geometric question and
collecting only the data for locations of entities will be
sufficient.

If it is aimed to compare the arrangements of different types

of entities or to study spatial pattern in measurements taken at
locations, then it is needed to make use of both attribute and
location information.

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 1.3. Types of Spatial Phenomena and Relationships

There are different types of spatial phenomena and spatial

relationships that may be involved in spatial data analysis.
These are basically:

•Entity view of the space

•Field view of the space

* Entity view: The space is considered as something filled

with “objects”. The spatial phenomena being analyzed are
usually conceptualized as points, lines or areas.

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Points Plants, people, shops, soil pits, the epicenters of
earthquakes, etc.

Lines Roads, streams, fault lines, etc.

Areas Countries, voting areas, health regions, land

covers, etc.

Note that representing objects in a space as points,

lines and areas are always scale dependent.

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*Field view: The space is considered as something covered
with "surfaces'. In this view the emphasis is on the continuity
of spatial phenomena. Phenomena in natural environment,
such as temperature, relief, atmospheric pressure, soil or
rock characteristics, etc. are observed and measured
anywhere on the earth's surface. In practice however, such
variables are "discretised". In other words they are sampled
at a set of discrete locations and represented as a
continuously varying field.

The relation between kind of spatial phenomena and

problem types

Entity view  Point pattern and area data

Field view  Spatially continuous data
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In entity view spatial objects have features or
attributes attached to with them; on the other
hand, in field view features are associated with a
field as an attribute varying continuously over
space. Such attributes are measured according to
one of the classic measurement scales:

 Nominal
 Ordinal
 Interval / ratio

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Table 1.1. Attributes of spatial entities according to
measurement scale

Measurement
Entity Attribute Nominal Scale Ordinal Interval

Point Tree Tree species Short, medium,long Age

Line Steam Clean or polluted 1st, 2nd or higher Discharge

order

Area Land Land-use class High, medium, low, Pollution

quality density

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 1.4. Problem Types in Spatial Data Analysis

There are basically four classes of problems encountered in

spatial data analysis:

1. Problems of spatially discrete point data

2. Problems of spatially continuous point data
3. Problems of area data
4. Problems of spatial interaction data

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 1. Problems of spatially discrete point data:

This type of problems deal with data for a set

of point events or a point pattern. These points
sometimes have simple attributes with them
distinguishing one kind of event from another.
The main concern in such analysis is to analyze
the pattern of the event locations.

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 E.g.
 The locations of craters in a volcanic field
 The locations of certain tree type in a forest
 The locations of the centers of biological cells in
a section of tissue
 The locations of certain crime type in a
neighborhood
 The locations of cases of a certain disease in an
area
 The locations of certain cancer type in a part of
the country

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Figure 1.2. Locations of cases of Legionaires' disease in Glasgow
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2. Problems of spatially continuous point data:

This class of problems arise where there are

again set of points but the pattern of these
locations is not itself the subject of analysis.
Rather, there is a variable/variables measured
at these sites and the problem is to understand
the process generating these values and
possibly then to use this information to make
predictions where there is no measurement.

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 E.g.

 Rainfall measurements
 Temperature for weather stations
 Groundwater levels
 Radon gas levels
 Geochemical data
 Climate measures
 Ore grade
 Soil & rock properties

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Location of rainfall Contoured precipitation Prediction errors (mm) of
measurement sites in levels(mm) in England precipitation in England
England and Wales and Wales and Wales

Figure 1.3. Rainfall maps in England and Wales

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 3. Problems of area data:
This class of problems concerns area data
which have been aggregated to a set of aerial
units, such as counties, districts, census zones,
etc. In this case there are one or more variables
whose values are measured over this set of
zones. The problem is to understand the spatial
arrangement of these values, to detect pattern
and to examine relationships among the set of
variables.
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 E.g.

 Child mortality rate

 Socio-economic data
 Census data
 Voting data
 Prevalence of human blood groups
 Emissions of nitrogen and ammonia

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 AIDS incident rates
and
1. Army
recruitment
2. In-out migration
3. Acessibility to
main roads

Figure 1.4. Incidence of AIDS in Ugandan districts

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 Residual maps are
constructed to
answer:
Are there cluster of
districts with more
AIDS cases than the
model predicts?

Figure 1.5. AIDS residuals in Uganda

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 4. Problems of spatial interaction data:

This class of problems examines data on

flows that link a set of locations (areas or
points). The basic aim is to understand the
arrangement of flows, to build models of such
flows and maybe to use this information in
making predictions about how the flow may
change under certain scenarios.

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 E.g.

 Business trips made by air within a country

 Migration for provinces of a country
 Patients treated from different districts at a
hospital
 The relative attractiveness of different shopping
centers as branch sites for a financial district
 The effect of opening a new swimming pool
 The impact of new housing district on existing
flows

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