Geographic Spatial Analysis

QUESTION

Explain how you would plan and conduct appropriate geographical information analysis of each cases, with the stated goals in mind. Your answer should consider (among other things):

* Possible limitations of the data, particularly arising from their spatial nature;

* Appropriate descriptive (spatial) statistics;

* Appropriate analysis methods, and their aims, strengths and weaknesses;

* Similarities and contrasts between the appropriate methods for the datasets you have selected.

CASE 1:

A police service uses spatial analysis to improve clear-up rates and to reduce the occurrence of house burglary. They have available a point dataset of crime events over the course of the year. Each crime event record includes geographic location, time of occurrence, and a list of attributes (e.g., date and time, type of crime, victim name and address, outcome, such as charge made, whether or not solved, etc.)

CASE 2:

A regional health board wants to detect geographic targets for screening of a particular type of cancer, especially in children, and aims to target resources in local schemes to reduce the problem. A polygon dataset is available, which records the total number of cases of the cancer, by demographic category (e.g. gender, ethnic group, etc.) by small area unit (e.g. census meshblocks), over the course of 10 years.

Case 3:

A scientist is involved in developing a monitoring network for air quality. A point data set is available of measurements from a pilot study where 20 sensors were deployed on week days at 200 different locations around the region (but concentrated on the CBD). Each record includes data on parts- per-million concentration of a variety of atmospheric pollutants (e.g., nitrous Oxide small particulates, ozone, etc) Each point has information on all the measurements taken at the location during a single day, the precise geographic location of the monitoring equipment, and also the time of day of each measurement taken. Measurements are available at 5 minute intervals.

Case 4:

The department of conservation wishes to improve targeting of measures for noxious weed control in the Auckland region. A data base is available recording for all parks and reserves in the region, the presence or absence of only (i.e., not severity of infestation) of around 40 different invasive pest plant species. The data base includes the geographical location of the park or reserve (you may assume a polygon layer) and also information about treatment applied in 5 years.