GIS14

Spatial analysis
Geospatial data has both spatial and thematic components, conceptually; geographic data can be broken up in two elements:
observation or entity and attribute or variable. GIS have to be able to manage both elements.
The Spatial component is the observations have two aspects in its localization: absolute localization based in a coordinates system and topological relationship referred to other observations.
 Example: The Department of computer is located at the particular coordinate X,Y, or, The Department is located between main Street and Engineering Building. A GIS is able to manage both while computer assisted cartography packages only manage the absolute one.
Thematic component: The attributes or variables can be studied considering the thematic aspect (statistics).
Spatial analysis used in studies to assess causal relations and understand patterns, and typically can be performed in one of three approaches.
1- Inductive Approach: Examine evidence in search of spatial patterns
2- Deductive Approach: Testing known theories against observational data.
3- Normative Approach: Develop or prescribe new designs and their potential impact.
  
Spatial data analysis can be classified into several general categories:
1- Query    
2- Measurement
3- Transformation
4- Descriptive summaries
5- Optimization
6- Hypothesis testing
1- Queries: refer to the interrogation of a geographic database, several common