SPATIAL DATA

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TYPES OF SPATIAL DATA
• Events (point)
• Interested in point pattern analysis
• Examples: Address of crime, Address of a sick person
• Continuous surfaces
• Ambient Air quality
• Discrete Spatial Objects
• Village income

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WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT SPATIAL
DATA
• Location, location, location
• Where matters
• Dependence is Rule
• Spatial interactions, spillovers
• Spatial scale matters

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spatial analysis Dr. Snow’s map of cholera deaths in London 11
NATURE OF SPATIAL DATA
• Geo-referenced
• Attribute data together with location
• Geocoding
• Associated observations with locations
• Example
• http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlon.php
• Point: latitude, longitude (GPS)

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LOCATION
• Location as given
• In most spatial data analysis no choice in location
• No sampling in the usual sense
• We are stuck with the location
• Data = attributes with location information

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SPATIAL SAMPLING
• Location as an experimental design problem
• Spatial sampling where to collect data
• Which village to survey
• Where to locate the air quality monitoring stations

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FIRST LAW OF GEOGRAPHY
• Tobler
• “everything depends on everything else, but closer things are
more so”
• Structure of spatial dependence
• Distance Decay
• Closeness = similarity

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SPATIAL SCALE
• Scale of spatial process and scale of spatial measurement
• Points too far apart can not provide information at smaller
distance variation
• Areal aggregates can not provide information on individual
behavior
• Ecological fallacy
• An ecological fallacy, often called an ecological inference fallacy, is an
error in the interpretation of statistical data in an ecological study,
whereby inferences about the nature of specific individuals are
based solely upon aggregate statistics collected for the group to
which those individuals belong

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SPATIAL DATA APPLICATION
EXAMPLES
• 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? 17
SPATIAL DATA APPLICATION
EXAMPLES
❖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? 18
SPATIAL DATA APPLICATION
EXAMPLES
❖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?

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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 predict values in areas where observations have
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not been made
• 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.
For example consider the relationship between number of
plant species and geographical area for a set of small
islands. It is suggested that the number of species is
related to the area of the island.

Reason: As area increases there is a greater possibility of a

range of available habitats
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❖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 (polygons, 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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• For example it is intended to model spatial variation in
precipitation in California. Suppose we take a set of 30
monitoring stations, distributed across the state.

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Locations of rainfall measurement sites in California

• 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 data24
analysis)
• 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 %.
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(Spatial data analysis)
Module 1: What Are Geographic Data?

Data informs decision making

• Geographic data, information, and information systems
• Databases and database management
• CAD, desktop mapping, and GIS
• GIS in site selection analysis
Properties of geographic data
• Metadata
• Entities and attributes
• Spatial data organization
• Spatial reference systems
• Data quality
• Data models
Map scale and map projections
• Map scale
• Map projections
• Georegistration
• Calculating map and air photo scale
• Calculate map scale on your own
 Contd…

Sources of geographic data

• Land surveys and GPS
• Aerial photography and photogrammetry
• Satellite remote sensing
• U.S. Census
• Existing paper maps
• Case studies: Siting disposal facilities

Exploring ArcGIS Desktop

• ArcMap
• ArcCatalog
• ArcGIS and metadata
• ArcToolbox
• ArcGIS Desktop Help
• Explore and analyze data
Module 2: Land Surveys and GPS
Specifying positions on a plane
• Plane coordinates
• UTM coordinate system
• State Plane Coordinate System
• Plot plane coordinates
Horizontal positions
• What surveyors measure
• Horizontal datum
• Open traverse
• Closed traverse
• Triangulation
• Trilateration
• Use trilateration to find an unknown point
Vertical positions
• Vertical datum
• Leveling
• Differential leveling
• Measuring elevations by differential leveling
• Geographic data, information, and information systems
Contd…

Specifying positions on a spheroid

• The shape of the Earth
• Geographic coordinate system
• Coordinate formats
• Converting coordinate formats
• Plot geographic coordinates
The Global Positioning System (GPS)
• Components of the Global Positioning System
• Satellite ranging
• Accuracy
• Differential correction
• Carrier phase correction
• Differential correction
• Explore GPS data
Module 3: Aerial Photographs and Planimetric Data

Topographic maps
• U.S. National Mapping Program
• Features and attributes on USGS topographic maps
• Interpreting metadata on USGS topographic maps
• Obtaining and using USGS topographic maps
• USGS DRG (digital raster graphic) data
• DRG data format
• Explore a USGS DRG
Air photos and photogrammetry
• Aerial photography
• Scale variations in air photos
• Stereoscopy
• Orthorectification
• USGS DOQ (digital orthophoto quadrangle) data
Contd…
•
USGS DOQ (digital orthophoto quadrangle) data
•
How photogrammetrists measure horizontal and
vertical positions from air photos
• Explore a USGS DOQ
Vector planimetric data
• USGS DLG (digital line graph) data
• Flood hazard data
• Soils data
• Vector data formats
• Explore a USGS DLG