Spatial Analysis of Vector Data

Engr. May Valdez

2nd Semester, SY 2023-2024

Geographic Information Systems - MZV 1

Objectives:

1. To recall GIS analysis and operations

2. To master vector analysis in GIS
3. To apply suitability analysis

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Outline:

1. GIS Analysis and Operations

2. Examples of Spatial Analysis for Vector Data
3. Vector Analysis in QGIS
4. Suitability Analysis

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GIS Operations
In GIS, spatial datasets normally follow this
sequence of operations:

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Review: Spatial Data
• It can be most simply
defined as information
that describes the
distribution of things
upon the surface of the
earth.
• In effect, it involves any
information concerning
the location, shape of,
and relationships among,
geographic features.
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Characteristics of Spatial Data
• Spatial Data has 2 kinds of attributes
– Spatial attributes - location information
– Non-spatial attributes
• Relationships among non-spatial attributes are
explicit
• But relationships among spatial attributes are
implicit

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Characteristics of Spatial Data
• Objects with similar attributes usually are located nearby
spatially
First law of Geography:
“Everything is related to everything else but nearby things
are more related than distant things”
–This is called spatial autocorrelation
• Data values are not independent
• Most geographic locations are unique (spatial heterogeneity)
– Therefore, global parameters do not always accurately
describe local values

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Analysis
• Analysis involves gaining an understanding of the
patterns and associated cause-and-effect processes
underlying the features which have been described
in order to:
– Help the organization better carry out its
mission
– Understand the phenomena as a goal in itself

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Spatial Analysis
“…the purpose of geographic inquiry (spatial
analysis) is to examine relationships between
geographic features collectively and to use
the relationships to describe the real-world
phenomena that map features represent.”
(Clarke 2001, 182).

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Spatial Analysis

1854 Cholera outbreak; 89 died (79 at Broad St.)

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Spatial Analysis
• What types of relationships exist between
geographic features, and how do we express
them?
• Properties of spatial features and/or relationships
between them:
– Size
– Distribution
– Pattern
– Contiguity

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Spatial Analysis
• Manipulation of spatial
data into various forms
to be able to extract
additional and
meaningful information
to understand the real
world.
• Used to gain new
understanding and to
test models and theories
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Role of GIS in Spatial Analysis?

• Manipulation of spatial and attribute data

(encompasses many different operations)
• Presentation/display capabilities
• Spatial analysis tools (many tools may be
used in combination)

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How can we characterize Spatial
Analysis (what does it require)?
• Spatial analysis is an artistic and a scientific
endeavor
– It requires knowledge of the problem
and/or question to be answered
– It requires knowledge about the data
(how it was collected, organized, coded,
etc.)
– It requires knowledge of GIS capabilities
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How can we characterize Spatial
Analysis (what does it require)?
– It requires knowledge of statistical techniques
– It requires envisioning/visualizing the results of
any operation…and the combination of any
operations
– It is not completely objective, in fact some argue
that it is completely subjective
– Many times there is more than one way to derive
information that answers a question
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Spatial Analysis: successive levels of
sophistication
• Spatial data manipulation: classic GIS capabilities
– Spatial queries & measurement, buffering, map layer overlay
• Spatial data analysis: descriptive and exploratory
– Visualization through data manipulation and mapping
• John Snow’s maps of cholera in 1850s London
• Spatial statistical analysis: hypothesis testing
– Are data “to be expected” or are they “unexpected” relative
to some statistical model, usually of a random process
• Spatial modeling: prediction
– Constructing models (of processes) to predict spatial
outcomes (patterns)
– What if analyses
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Process Models
• Describe the
interactions or
processes of the
objects of real
world, which are
modeled in the
representation
model, by using
map calculation

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Data Analysis in GIS
• Application driven:
– Science: impacts of climate change; causes of
water pollution; spread of disease
– Business: marketing, truck routing/dispatching
– Government: property assessment/taxation;
political redistricting; school bus routing

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Recall: Typical Applications of GIS
• Siting - finding optimal locations, e.g., choosing a
location for a new fire station, a landfill site or a
restaurant
• Logistics - movement, allocation or distribution of
personnel, vehicles and supplies (e.g., emergency
response, movement of military troops/supplies)
• Routing - optimal movement through a network (e.g.,
school buses, garbage, mail, packages)
• Navigation – “way-finding”, may or may not involve an
existing network (e.g., ground, sea, air)
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Recall: Typical Applications of GIS
• Inventory - count and location of objects for a given
time period (e.g., census of population, vehicles)
• Management - scheduling maintenance, tracking
demand (e.g., scheduling road repairs)
• Monitoring change - over space and time (e.g., land
use, pollution; ecological, epidemiological studies)
• Forecasting - predicting outcomes of decisions, actions
or processes (e.g., impacts of conservation practices on
water quality; crop yield)

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GIS Analysis Functions
• Query (e.g., identify, select)
• Recoding (reclassify)
• Proximity analysis (buffering, distance)
• Neighborhood analyses (e.g., average, variety)
• Arithmetic operations
• Terrain analysis (e.g., slope, aspect, viewsheds)
• Overlay analysis (logical and arithmetic)
• Network analysis (e.g., routing, allocation)
• Spatial modeling (simulation, projection)

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Examples of Spatial Data Analysis for
Vector Data
1. Querying
2. Proximity Analysis
a. Buffering
b. Thiessen Polygons
3. Overlay Analysis

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Vector Analysis in QGIS

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Querying
• Method of data retrieval
• Can be performed either on data that are part of the
GIS database or on new data produced as a result of
data analysis
Types:
1. Aspatial query
2. Spatial query
• Individual queries can be combined to identify features
that satisfy two or more spatial and/or aspatial criteria
• Usually uses Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, XOR)

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Querying example
• Query all the parks that are passed through by main
roads and adjacent to lakes.

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Logical (Boolean) Operators
• AND – finds all map units that
have both attributes specified
• OR – finds all map units that
have either one attribute OR
another attribute OR both
attributes specified
• XOR – finds all map units that
have either one attribute OR
another attribute but not both
attributes together
• NOT – finds all map units that
have one attribute but not
another
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Proximity Analysis (Buffering)
• Creation of a zone of
interest around an entity
– Point entity: circular
buffer zone
– Line entity: elongated
buffer zone
– Polygon entity: buffer
zone has the same
shape as original
polygon, but larger

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Proximity Analysis (Buffering)

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Proximity: Thiessen Polygons
• Sometimes we want to know a target’s zone (area) of influence.
• A partitioning of the plane into polygons that have this characteristic, that is
containing all the locations that are closer to the polygon’s ‘midpoint’ than to any
other ‘midpoint

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Spatial Interpolation: Thiessen Polygons
• Used to establish area territories for a set of points
• Examples: transformation of point climate stations to watersheds; construction of
areas of influence around population centers

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Thiessen Polygons

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Sample Questions that Proximity
Analysis Can Address
• How many
evacuation sites lie
within 5 kilometers
of this river?
• What structures
are within 10
kilometers from
high erosion risk
areas?

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Proximity Analysis Example
• Identify the locations of hazardous chemical storage sites in
relation to healthcare facilities

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Overlay Analysis
• New spatial data layer from two or more old data
layers
– Basic principle : Compare the properties of the same
location in both data layers, and to produce a new
characteristic for that location in the output layer.
• Can be done within vector and raster
– Should be georeferenced in the same coordinate
system and
– Should cover the same area of interest

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Overlay Analysis

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Overlay Analysis (Vector)

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Vector Overlay
1. Point-in-polygon
2. Line-in-polygon
3. Polygon-on-polygon
• Individual data layers to be overlaid have to be
topologically correct (lines should meet at nodes
and polygon boundaries are closed)
• Seldom used in isolation
➢ commonly used with querying
• Time-consuming, complex, and computationally
expensive
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Point-in-Polygon Overlay
• used to find the polygon in which a point falls
within, or find a point or points that fall within a
certain polygon

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Line-in-Polygon Overlay
• used to find the polygon in which a line or lines fall
within, or find a line or lines that fall within a
certain polygon

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Polygon-on-Polygon Overlay
• used to determine which polygons from two layers
intersect or are within another polygon

Types of Polygon-on-Polygon Overlay:

• Union, Clip/Cookie-cutting, Intersect
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Vector Overlay Functions

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Union
• Corresponds to the Boolean operator OR
• Output layer contains polygons from both input layers

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Clip/Cookie-cutting
• Corresponds to the Boolean operator NOT
• A polygon layer is used to cut out the portion of another polygon
layer that falls within the first polygon

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Intersect
• Corresponds to the Boolean operator AND
• Output is the polygon of intersection of two polygon layers

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Suitability Analysis from Overlay

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Suitability Analysis from Overlay

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Congratulations to those who
persevered to listen….and learn!

G29 - Remote Sensing - MZV 47