2018 QUARTER 03

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T U V W
GS-25 - Spatial Decision Support

It has been estimated that 80% of all datasets include geographic references. Since these data often factor into preparing important decisions, we can assume that a significant proportion of all decisions have a geospatial aspect to them. Therefore, spatial decision support is an intrinsic component of societal decision-making. It is thus necessary for current and aspiring analysts, and for decision-makers and other stakeholders, to understand the fundamental concepts, techniques, and challenges of spatial decision support. This GIS&T topic explores the unique nature and basic concepts of spatial decision support, discusses the relationship between Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and briefly introduces Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) as a decision support technique. The impact of Web-based and mobile information technology, ever-increasing accessibility of geospatial data, and participatory approaches to decision-making are touched upon and additional resources for further reading provided.

AM-34 - Spatial expansion and geographically weighted regression
  • Perform an analysis using the geographically weighted regression technique
  • Discuss the appropriateness of GWR under various conditions
  • Describe the characteristics of the spatial expansion method
  • Explain the principles of geographically weighted regression
  • Compare and contrast GWR with universal kriging using moving neighborhoods
  • Explain how allowing the parameters of the model to vary with the spatial location of the sample data can be used to accommodate spatial heterogeneity
  • Analyze the number of degrees of freedom in GWR analyses and discuss any possible difficulties with the method based on your results
AM-33 - Spatial filtering
  • Identify modeling situations where spatial filtering might not be appropriate
  • Demonstrate how spatial autocorrelation can be “removed” by resampling
  • Explain how dissolving clusters of blocks with similar values may resolve the spatial correlation problem
  • Explain how the Getis and Tiefelsdorf-Griffith spatial filtering techniques incorporate spatial component variables into OLS regression analysis in order to remedy misspecification and the problem of spatially auto-correlated residuals
  • Explain how spatial correlation can result as a side effect of the spatial aggregation in a given dataset
  • Describe the relationship between factorial kriging and spatial filtering
DM-66 - Spatial Indexing

A spatial index is a data structure that allows for accessing a spatial object efficiently. It is a common technique used by spatial databases.  Without indexing, any search for a feature would require a "sequential scan" of every record in the database, resulting in much longer processing time. In a spatial index construction process, the minimum bounding rectangle serves as an object approximation. Various types of spatial indices across commercial and open-source databases yield measurable performance differences. Spatial indexing techniques are playing a central role in time-critical applications and the manipulation of spatial big data.

AM-10 - Spatial Interaction

Spatial interaction (SI) is a fundamental concept in the GIScience literature, and may be defined in numerous ways. SI often describes the "flow" of individuals, commodities, capital, and information over (geographic) space resulting from a decision process. Alternatively, SI is sometimes used to refer to the influence of spatial proximity of places on the intensity of relations between those places. SI modeling as a separate research endeavor developed out of a need to mathematically model and understand the underlying determinants of these flows/influences. Proponents of SI modeling include economic geographers, regional scientists, and regional planners, as well as climate scientists, physicists, animal ecologists, and even some biophysical/environmental researchers. Originally developed from theories of interacting particles and gravitational forces in physics, SI modeling has developed through a series of refinements in terms of functional form, conceptual representations of distances, as well as a range of analytically rigorous technical improvements.
 

CP-07 - Spatial MapReduce

MapReduce has become a popular programming paradigm for distributed processing platforms. It exposes an abstraction of two functions, map and reduce, which users can define to implement a myriad of operations. Once the two functions are defined, a MapReduce framework will automatically apply them in parallel to billions of records and over hundreds of machines. Users in different domains are adopting MapReduce as a simple solution for big data processing due to its flexibility and efficiency. This article explains the MapReduce programming paradigm, focusing on its applications in processing big spatial data. First, it gives a background on MapReduce as a programming paradigm and describes how a MapReduce framework executes it efficiently at scale. Then, it details the implementation of two fundamental spatial operations, namely, spatial range query and spatial join. Finally, it gives an overview of spatial indexing in MapReduce systems and how they can be combined with MapReduce processing.

AM-14 - Spatial process models
  • Discuss the relationship between spatial processes and spatial patterns
  • Differentiate between deterministic and stochastic spatial process models
  • Describe a simple process model that would generate a given set of spatial patterns
FC-13 - Spatial queries
  • Demonstrate the syntactic structure of spatial and temporal operators in SQL
  • State questions that can be solved by selecting features based on location or spatial relationships
  • Construct a query statement to search for a specific spatial or temporal relationship
  • Construct a spatial query to extract all point objects that fall within a polygon
  • Compare and contrast attribute query and spatial query
DC-07 - Spatial sample types
  • Design point, transect, and area sampling strategies for given applications
  • Differentiate between situations in which one would use stratified random sampling and systematic sampling
  • Differentiate among random, systematic, stratified random, and stratified systematic unaligned sampling strategies
AM-26 - Spatial sampling for statistical analysis
  • List and describe several spatial sampling schemes and evaluate each one for specific applications
  • Differentiate between model-based and design-based sampling schemes
  • Design a sampling scheme that will help detect when space-time clusters of events occur
  • Create spatial samples under a variety of requirements, such as coverage, randomness, and transects
  • Describe sampling schemes for accurately estimating the mean of a spatial data set

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