This book is the first in a two-volume series that introduces the field of spatial data science. It offers an accessible overview of the methodology of exploratory spatial data analysis. It also constitutes the definitive user-s guide for the widely adopted GeoDa open source software for spatial analysis. Leveraging a large number of real-world empirical illustrations, readers will gain an understanding of the main concepts and techniques, using dynamic graphics for thematic mapping, statistical graphing, and, most centrally, the analysis of spatial autocorrelation. Key to this analysis is the concept of local indicators of spatial association, pioneered by the author and recently extended to the analysis of multivariate data.
The focus of the book is on intuitive methods to discover interesting patterns in spatial data. It offers a progression from basic data manipulation through description and exploration, to the identification of clusters and outliers by means o
