Potential Contributions of Spatial Analysis to Geographic Information Systems for Transportation (GIS-T)

Harvey J. Miller
2010 Geographical Analysis  
Forthcoming in Geographical Analysis (30 th anniversary issue) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Tom Cova and three anonymous referees for helpful comments on an earlier draft. ABSTRACT: Geographic information systems (GIS) are having tremendous impacts on many scientific and application domains. The traditional subfield of spatial analysis is witnessing a major resurgence and enhancement due to GIS and geographic information science (GISci), an interdisciplinary field focusing on the theory and
more » ... dology underlying GIS software. The interdisciplinary field of geographic information systems for transportation (GIS-T) has emerged to focus on the role of GIS in transportation analysis and planning. This paper suggests the benefits of closer linkages between spatial analysis, GISci and transportation through a focused review of spatial analytical issues and their potential contributions to GIS-T. Specifically, this paper reviews the following issues: i) modifiable areal units; ii) boundary problems and spatial sampling; iii) spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity; and. iv) alternative representations of geographic environments. The discussion highlights the general issues as well as identifies their specific relevance to GIS-T. In addition, this paper identifies some emerging tools from GISci that can address these spatial analytical issues in GIS-T.
doi:10.1111/j.1538-4632.1999.tb00991.x fatcat:wcmg2qwbsjas3i2uc6yvb22kzm