Geospatial Analysis And Modelling Of Urban Structure And Dynamics

Geospatial Analysis and Modelling of Urban Structure and Dynamics

The GeoJournal Library
Volume 99 Managing Editor:

Daniel Z. Sui, College Station, USA
Founding Series Editor:

Wolf Tietze, Helmstedt, Germany
Editorial Board: Paul Claval, France

Yehuda Gradus, Israel Sam Ock Park, South Korea Herman van der Wusten, The Netherlands

For further volumes:http://www.springer.com/series/6007

Bin Jiang
Editors

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Xiaobai Yao

Geospatial Analysis and Modelling of Urban Structure and Dynamics

Foreword by Michael Batty

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Editors Bin Jiang University of Gavle ¨ Department of Technology and Built Environment Division of Geomatics SE-801 76 Gavle ¨ Sweden bin.jiang@hig.se

Xiaobai Yao Department of Geography University of Georgia Athens GA 30602 Room 204,GG Bldg. USA xyao@uga.edu

ISSN 0924-5499 ISBN 978-90-481-8571-9 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8572-6 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8572-6
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010922459 # Springer ScienceþBusiness Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Foreword

A Coming of Age:Geospatial Analysis and Modelling in the Early Twenty First Century
Forty years ago when spatial analysis first emerged as a distinct theme within geography’s quantitative revolution, the focus was largely on consistent methods for measuring spatial correlation. The concept of spatial autocorrelation took pride of place, mirroring concerns in time-series analysis about similar kinds of dependenceknown to distort the standard probability theory used to derive appropriate statistics. Early applications of spatial correlation tended to reflect geographical patterns expressed as points. The perspective taken on such analytical thinking was founded on induction, the search for pattern in data with a view to suggesting appropriate hypotheses which could subsequently be tested. In parallel butusing very different techniques came the development of a more deductive style of analysis based on modelling and thence simulation. Here the focus was on translating prior theory into forms for generating testable predictions whose outcomes could be compared with observations about some system or phenomenon of interest. In the intervening years, spatial analysis has broadened to embrace bothinductive and deductive approaches, often combining both in different mixes for the variety of problems to which it is now applied. Moreover, the focus has become more explicitly geographical although the term spatial still has a wider usage for many of the statistics and models that form the arsenal of techniques in this area are applicable to spatial systems other than the obvious geographies – suchas ecologies, climatic regimes, and even astronomies. In this collection of papers, however, the authors use the term ‘‘geospatial’’ to ground their systems of interest geographical conceptions of cities and regions, but they also show how many of the advances over the last 40 years are now part of the background knowledge that constitutes this field. In fact, the concerns here are with majorextensions of analysis and modelling which reflect new themes in geographical thinking that are resulting from changes in our perceptions of city systems. These are largely due to demographic, technological and behavioural change which are driving new problems and the need for new methods, as well as the enormous

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Foreword

changes that have taken place in our ability to collect,...