Scan Statistics

Abstract

In 1965, Joseph Naus published his now classical paper on spatial scan statistics, entitled ‘Clustering of random points in two dimensions’. This paper set in motion an important statistical theory of spatial scan statistics and an avalanche of spatial scan statistics applications in a wide variety of fields, including archaeology, astronomy, brain imaging, criminology, demography, early detection of disease outbreaks, ecology, epidemiology, forestry, geology, history, psychology and veterinary medicine. In this chapter, we survey this wide variety of applications.