Introduction

Abstract

The fact that the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Paul Krugman indicates the increasing attention being given to spatially related phenomena and processes. Given the growing number of academics currently doing research on spatially related subjects, and the large number of questions being asked about spatial processes, the time has come for some sort of summary statement, such as this Handbook, to identify the status of the methods and techniques being used to study spatial data. This Handbook brings together contributions from the most accomplished researchers in the area of spatial analysis. Each was asked to describe and explain in one chapter the nature of the types of analysis in which they are expert. Clearly, having only one chapter to explain, for example, exploratory spatial data analysis or spatial econometric models, is a daunting task, but the authors of this book were able to summarize the key notions of their spatial analytic fields and point readers in directions that will help them to better understand their data and the techniques available to them.