Fundamental Spatial Concepts Michael F. Goodchild University 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 literature Spatially 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 Children with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles. 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 These kids process knowledge through bodily sensations. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking. 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 daydreaming. 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 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 These children may be shy. They are very aware of their own feelings and are selfmotivated. 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 Volume 2: Calculating the center, dispersion, and trend Identifying patterns Identifying clusters Analyzing geographic relationships Mapping what s changed
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
The Economist, May 17, 3, 2003
from Lance Waller, Emory University Snow, J. (1949) Snow on Cholera. Oxford University Press.! 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
Level of detail 4. Scale 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
Humanities Fine Arts Education Social Sciences Representation Simulation Cognition Perception Space-time Patterns & Processes Analysis Information-technology Integration Physical & Bio Sciences Visualization Computation Modeling Application Engineering Management Planning & Policy 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
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