ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 2: Spatial Measurements and Statistics [Paperback]

Andy Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 158948116X | ISBN-13: 978-1589481169 | Edition: 1

Backed by the collective knowledge and experience of the world's leading Geographic Information Systems (GIS) company, the concepts and methods presented in this volume will allow users to unleash the full analytic power of their GIS. The most commonly used spatial statistical tools are described in detail along with their applications in a range of disciplines, from crime analysis to habitat conservation. GIS users will learn how features are distributed, how to analyze the pattern created by the features, and how to determine the relationships between them. Four general statistical concepts are discussed, including testing statistical significance, defining spatial neighborhoods and weights, and using statistics with spatial data. Advice on determining which statistical tool to use in a given situation is also provided.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andy Mitchell is a technical writer with more than 20 years experience in GIS. He is the author of "The ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 1: Geographic Patterns and Relationships" and "Zeroing In" and the coauthor of "Getting Started with ArcGIS," He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: ESRI Press; 1 edition (July 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158948116X
• ISBN-13: 978-1589481169
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Geography > Information Systems

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lacks specific instructions, November 17, 2007

By 

J. Gagen "Epidemiologist, PhD" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 2: Spatial Measurements and Statistics (Paperback)

Although the book gives nice examples on ways to analyze spatial data, this ESRI book lacks specifics on how to do this in their base software or extensions. Documentation for CrimeStat by Ned Levine and Associates explains spatial analysis better, is free and is cited in this book. The documentation for CrimeStat is also better.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It works best if you know a little bit of both, April 19, 2010

By 

Betty "New york bus" (NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 2: Spatial Measurements and Statistics (Paperback)

This is definitely not a book for advanced users in spatial statistics or a tutorial-based book of how to use spatial statistics in GIS. As the author described at the very beginning, this is an introductory book for people who have used GIS but know very little about statistics. Personally, I think this book works best if you already took your intro to GIS and basic statistic class so you already know a little bit of both. It explains how two of them can work together to solve the questions you have in mind about the real world problems.

Besides the complimentary approach, I give this book five stars because of 1) the writing style is extremely accessible. Even he does not go through all the details on statistics, the author explains the statistic concepts a lot better than any other books I have read for my statistic class. 2) the graphics, including maps and charts, are extremely helpful to compare the concepts and different methods he describes in the book. 3) the comparison between different spatial statistic are very useful if you are puzzled with different spatial statistic tools available in your ArcGIS toolbox when the "Help" is not helpful at all! 4) it gives you various reference if you are interested in exploring specific topics.

If you want to explore your data beyond thematic mapping and want to know whether the patterns you see are statistically significant or not, this is a book that will open the door of spatial statistic to you. If you are a visual person but hate statistics, this book might change that as well!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction, but what tools?, June 10, 2010

By 

Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 2: Spatial Measurements and Statistics (Paperback)

This book provides a useful introduction to the concepts of measuring spatial distributions, identifying patterns and clusters, and identifying patterns. There is the basic information about how to identify geographic centers with mean and median, and general statistical distributions and tests of significance. The section on identifying clusters was good, but the nearest neighbor hierarchical clustering is only available in Crime stat. One disappointing thing about this book from ESRI, is there is not a mention of what specific ArcGIS toolbox item can be used to generate the statistic. It was also not always clear what analysis made sense for lines, polygons or points. A further discussion of raster analysis and the connection between measures of mean, and some of the raster neighborhood statistics would have been useful. .