Esri Partners with Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science

Spatial Patterns, Processes are Focus of New Program

Esri has partnered with the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS) to help develop and distribute an easy-to-use suite of software for spatial data analysis. In 1999, a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research established the CSISS, which is part of an initiative to build research infrastructure in the social and behavioral sciences.

Spatial relationships play a fundamental role in human society, and CSISS promotes research that advances the understanding of spatial patterns and processes. Developing new tools for spatial analysis based on emerging software technologies is one of several programs that CSISS operates.

Esri is participating in the development of software for exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), which will be integrated within the new ArcInfo 8 environment. Under the direction of Dr. Luc Anselin, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are developing the second generation of the SpaceStat software for spatial data analysis. The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis originally made SpaceStat available in the early 1990s.

A major focus of activity is the enhancement of the existing DynESDA extension for ArcView GIS with functionality for methods to analyze and visualize clusters in space-time data and the application of local indicators for spatial association. Initial efforts are targeted at moving the functionality of dynamically linked windows for spatial data exploration to the ArcInfo 8 environment by taking advantage of its ArcObjects component architecture.

According to Anselin, "This seamless integration of ESDA with the range of spatial data formats supported by ArcInfo 8 will provide the social scientist with powerful tools for the exploration of patterns in geographical data." The new tools will have immediate applications to the detection of clusters and hot spots in an array of fields such as public health and criminology.

Additional efforts under the software tools initiative include the development of an open and modular toolbox for the application of spatial econometric techniques, which will complement the functionality of Esri's geostatistical analyst.

Other CSISS Programs

In addition to software research, CSISS operates six other programs designed to promote and facilitate an integrating approach to social science. It sponsors specialist meetings on major themes in the social sciences as well as summer workshops targeted toward young scholars. The meetings cut across disciplines and focus on gaps in knowledge that can be addressed through a spatial perspective.

The CSISS Web site (www.csiss.org) identifies learning resources covering core concepts and exemplary research approaches, such as lecture outlines, exercises, and demonstrations, and catalogs them for easy access.

Best-practice examples of spatial analytic approaches that advance theoretical understanding and empirical testing in social science will be featured in upcoming CSISS publications and used for creating learning resources.

For more information about CSISS, visit www.csiss.org or contact Luc Anselin, University of Illinois (tel.: 217-333-7608) or Donald Janelle, CSISS program director (tel.: 805-893-5267, e-mail: janelle@geog.ucsb.edu).

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