The availability of spatial databases and widespread use of geographic information systems has stimulated increasing interest in the analysis and modelling of spatial data. Spatial data analysis focuses on detecting patterns, and on exploring and modelling relationships between them in order to understand the processes responsible for their emergence. In this way, the role of space is emphasised , and our understanding of the working and representation of space, spatial patterns, and processes is enhanced. In applied research, the recognition of the spatial dimension often yields different and more meaningful results and helps to avoid erroneous conclusions. This book aims to provide an introduction into spatial data analysis to graduates interested in applied statistical research. The text has been structured from a data-driven rather than a theory-based perspective, and focuses on those models, methods and techniques which are both accessible and of practical use for graduate students. Exploratory techniques as well as more formal model-based approaches are presented, and both area data and origin-destination flow data are considered.

The book helps the reader Provides a quick overview of the best practice models, methods and techniques in spatial data analysis Shows how to correctly interpret the results of spatial regression models, an issue that had been largely neglected in the past Demonstrates how to relax the independence assumption in spatial interaction modelling to account for the spatial dependence in origin-destination flows

Autorentext
Manfred M. Fischer (born in 1947, Nuremberg, Germany) graduated in geography and mathematics from the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen (Germany). He holds a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) on urban modelling from the same university (1975), and a habilitation degree in human geography from the University of Vienna (1982). Since 1988 he is professor in economic geography and GIScience at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
For more than thirty years he has consistently made significant contributions to regional science and GIScience in general, and spatial analysis, GeoComputation and spatial econometrics in particular. He has published widely, both books and articles in more than 30 distinct academic journals.

Inhalt
Preface.- Part A: The Analysis of Geostatical Data.- Part B: The Analysis of Area Data.- Part C: The Analysis of Spatial Interaction Data.- Subject Index.- Author Index.