Fundamental Spatial Concepts

Michael F. GoodchildUniversity of California

Santa Barbara

A spatial turn in science• Adding space to theory

– the New Economic Geography• space impeding flows of information, operation of markets• transport costs

– Spatial Ecology• a heterogeneous resource base• space impeding interactions, breeding• metapopulations

• Reasoning from spatial data– cross-sectional– new tools to overcome methodological problems– impacts in all social, environmental disciplines

A growing literatureSpatially Integrated Social Science (Goodchild and Janelle, OUP, 2004)

The drivers• New technologies, new data

– geographic information systems (GIS)– remote sensing– positioning (GPS)– using location to integrate– providing spatial context– delivery mechanisms

• Applications of science in policy, decision making, design

What fundamental concepts?• How do people organize knowledge about

space?• How should we organize the tools?• What does it mean to think spatially?

– are people who do fundamentally different?– can one train to be a spatial thinker?– would you know one if you met one?

Spatial thinking• Larger than GIS

– compare GIScience• What every Google Earth user needs to

know• One of Gardner’s seven types of intelligence

““““1. Linguistic 1. Linguistic 1. Linguistic 1. Linguistic Children with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles.

2. Logical-Mathematical 2. Logical-Mathematical 2. Logical-Mathematical 2. Logical-Mathematical Children with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories and relationships. They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments.

3. Bodily-Kinesthetic 3. Bodily-Kinesthetic 3. Bodily-Kinesthetic 3. Bodily-Kinesthetic These kids process knowledge through bodily sensations. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking.

4. Spatial 4. Spatial 4. Spatial 4. Spatial These children think in images and pictures. They may be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing, building with Lego or daydreamingdaydreamingdaydreamingdaydreaming.

5. Musical 5. Musical 5. Musical 5. Musical Musical children are always singing or drumming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss. These kids are often discriminating listeners.

6. Interpersonal 6. Interpersonal 6. Interpersonal 6. Interpersonal Children who are leaders among their peers, who are good at communicating and who seem to understand others' feelings and motives possess interpersonal intelligence.

7. Intrapersonal 7. Intrapersonal 7. Intrapersonal 7. Intrapersonal These children may be shy. They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated.”

Howard Gardner

http://www.professorlamp.com/ed/TAG/7_Intelligences.html

What is spatial thinking?“Three aspects of spatial ability:• Spatial knowledge

– symmetry, orientation, scale, distance decay, etc.

• Spatial ways of thinking and acting– using diagramming or graphing, recognizing

patterns in data, change over space from change over time, etc.

• Spatial capabilities– ability to use tools and technologies such as

spreadsheet, graphical, statistical, and GIS software to analyze spatial data”

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11019.html

“Spatial thinking tasks• Extracting spatial structures (encoding)

– perception and creation of representation– show the spatial or conceptual relationships between

elements with respect to reference frame

• Performing spatial transformations• Drawing functional inferences

– complex spatial reasoning– combining representations and transformations to evaluate

or predict situations or events”

“The spatially literate student• Knows where, when, how, and why to think

spatially• Practices spatial thinking with

– broad and deep knowledge of spatial concepts and representations

– well-developed spatial capabilities for using supporting tools and technologies

• Adopts a critical stance to spatial thinking– can evaluate the quality of spatial data based on source,

likely accuracy, reliability– can use spatial data to construct, articulate, and defend

a line of reasoning in solving problems and answering questions”

What fundamental concepts exist in spatial intelligence?

• Are they sophisticated and abstract enough to warrant a place in the curriculum?– like mathematics, statistics, language, music– can spatial intelligence gain more respect?

• Are they an appropriate basis for improved GIS user interface design?– does the interface need improvement?

A complex set of tools• A GIS is capable of virtually any conceivable

operation on spatial data– how many conceivable operations are there?

• ArcGIS 9.2 toolkit– 510 operations– 10 headings, up to 4 levels of hierarchical organization– headings include:

• Analysis, Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst, Geostatistical Analyst, Spatial Statistics

• Data Management, Conversion

• Under which heading would you find the routine to convert a shapefile to KML?

Map algebra• Local, focal, zonal, global

– raster only– is there something equivalent for vector?

• van Duersen’s scripting language– c = a + b

• Andy Mitchell’s books– ESRI Press

Volume 1:

Mapping where things are

Mapping the most and least

Mapping density

Finding what’s inside

Finding what’s nearby

Mapping what’s changed

Volume 2:

Calculating the center, dispersion, and trend

Identifying patterns

Identifying clusters

Analyzing geographic relationships

Redundancy in operations• SELECT FROM soilmap WHERE

soiltype=“A” AND county=“Santa Barbara”– if county is not an attribute in the soilmap

shapefile– invoke an identity operation

• Extend van Duersen’s language to allow references to fields irrespective of their representation– rasters with different pixel size– area shapefiles with non-congruent areas– a TIN and a collection of sample points

1. Location• Defining and measuring location

– the impossibility of exact measurement

• From infinitesimal point to extended area• Place

– how many places are there in the U.S.?– what is the most populous city in the world?

• Location as context• Location as common key• It is important to know where events occur

2. Distance, direction• Measurement

– plane, globe– buffers

• Distance decay– decline of interaction with distance– cost, time impediments– footprints of human behavior

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!Snow, J. (1949) Snow on Cholera. Oxford University Press.

from Lance Waller, Emory University

Johnson, S. (2006) The Ghost Map. Riverhead

3. Neighborhood/region/territory

• The context of individuals– action space

• Homogeneous areas• The reporting zone containing the individual

– arbitrarily imposed on a continuous Earth

• The ecological fallacy– the modifiable areal unit problem

• Competition for space– trade areas, bird territories– functional regions

4. Scale• Level of detail

– the inevitability of generalization

• Extent– generalizability of results

• Methods of upscaling, downscaling• Fractal concepts• Scale is always important

– many properties cannot be defined independently of scale• length of a coastline• slope of a topographic surface• land use class

Unique to spatial thinking?• Analogs of spatial scale in other domains• Observed properties of spatial data

– what makes spatial special?

5. Spatial dependence• “All things are related, but nearby things are more

related than distant things”– W.R. Tobler, 1970. A computer movie simulating urban

growth in the Detroit region. Economic Geography 46: 234-240

– “nearby things are more similar than distant things”– geostatistics, Moran statistic– the most important property of any spatially distributed

phenomenon

• Challenges the normal assumptions of statistical tests– independent, randomly chosen samples

6. Spatial heterogeneity• TFL describes a second-order effect

– properties of places taken two at a time– a law of spatial dependence– is there a law of places taken one at a time?

• Spatial heterogeneity– non-stationarity– uncontrolled variance

Practical implications• A state is not a sample of the nation

– a country is not a sample of the world• Results of any analysis will depend explicitly on

spatial bounds• Classification schemes will differ when devised by

local jurisdictions• Figures of the Earth will differ when devised by local

surveying agencies• Global standards will always compete with local

standards • Strong argument for place-based analysis, local

statistics, geographically weighted regression

Summary• Working with spatial data is not always

simple and intuitive– but it can yield great insights if handled

appropriately• There is a substantial body of knowledge that

needs to be acquired by anyone working with spatial data– you would never think of doing a t test without

taking a course in statistics– why would you consider using a GIS without

taking a course in spatial thinking?

Other spaces

the human brain

molecular chemistry

the cosmos

nanoscience

UCSB is spatial

• Exchange ideas and resources• Promote new tools, research, and

applications• Enhance spatial literacy • Community of spatial thinkers

• Web portal on spatial UCSB• Seminars and workshops• Spatial help desk• General course(s) on spatial

thinking

VisualizationVisualizationVisualizationVisualization

AnalysisAnalysisAnalysisAnalysis

RepresentationRepresentationRepresentationRepresentation

SimulationSimulationSimulationSimulation ModelingModelingModelingModeling

CognitionCognitionCognitionCognitionPerceptionPerceptionPerceptionPerception

ApplicationApplicationApplicationApplication

Space-timeSpace-timeSpace-timeSpace-time

Patterns &Patterns &Patterns &Patterns &

ProcessesProcessesProcessesProcesses

ComputationComputationComputationComputation

Humanities Humanities Humanities Humanities Fine ArtsFine ArtsFine ArtsFine Arts EngineeringEngineeringEngineeringEngineering

Social SciencesSocial SciencesSocial SciencesSocial Sciences Physical & Bio Physical & Bio Physical & Bio Physical & Bio SciencesSciencesSciencesSciences

Information-technology Information-technology Information-technology Information-technology IntegrationIntegrationIntegrationIntegration

EducationEducationEducationEducationManagement Management Management Management

PlanningPlanningPlanningPlanning& Policy& Policy& Policy& Policy

Conclusions• It is possible to enumerate the fundamental

concepts of a spatial approach– six broadly defined concepts– 27 in recent publication– De Smith, Goodchild, and Longley (2006)

Geospatial Analysis– www.spatialanalysisonline.com

Conclusions (2)• This is more than GIS

– an enveloping conceptual framework for many new technologies

– many drivers• One of a minimal set of intelligences

– part of everyone’s education