Week 2: Getting Started with Spatial Analysis

Abstract

Spatial Analysis is the process of analyzing topographic information to further understand and gain knowledge about a particular source or piece of land. Using spatial analysis techniques we are able to not only better describe certain relationships but also visualize certain relationships that we are trying to better understand and comprehend. Spatial analysis can be further broken down into categories based on the type of question you may be analyzing. Some common categories of spatial analysis are;

• Determining the relationships between certain places

• Measuring size, shape, and distribution

• Detecting and quantifying patterns

• Understanding Where

• Making Predictions

Methods

For the purpose of this lab I used an Esri tutorial to walk me through the key fundamentals of spatial analysis. Once completed I was successfully able to identify the work order needed to properly conduct a spatial analysis. The process is listed below;

1. Ask questions

2. Explore and Prepare Data

3. Analyze the model

4. Interpret Results

Discussion

The main part of the tutorial was completing a spatial analysis in regards to farmers market and seeing how as we potentially increase the radius of a permitter the number of potential farmers market within increases. Below you will find many helpful figures showcasing this idea/concept.

Figure 1: We want to see how many farmers market are within a certain distance of the blue dot.

Figure 2: All the red dots are farmer markets surrounding our main point. If you where to draw a small circle around the blue dot and consistency increased the size of the circle the number of red dots within would also grow as we increased the area.

Further Discussion

I want to also mention how it is really important to follow the work flow when doing a spatial analysis. By following a work flow it helps to ensure you can keep yourself organized and to help ensure you obtain accurate results with your analysis. What this all means is to not do any steps out of order as you are risking the integrity in terms of accuracy of your data results.