Geospatial analysis and geocomputation: Concepts and modeling tools

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to geocomputation and geocomputational methods. As such it considers the scope of the term geocomputation, the principal techniques that are applied, and some of the key underlying principles and issues. Chapters elsewhere in this major reference work examine many of these ideas and methods in greater detail. In this connection it is reasonable to ask whether all of modern spatial analysis is inherently geocomputational; the answer is without doubt “no," but its growing importance in the development of new forms of spatial analysis, in exploration of the behavior and dynamics of complex systems, in the analysis of large datasets, in optimization problems, and in model validation remains indisputable.