Spatial Analysis

Spatial analysis is the process of examining the locations,

attributes, patterns, and relationships of features in spatial data in
order to address a question or gain useful knowledge.
Geospatial analysis are undertaken to answer the questions about
the real world, evaluation of the present situation of specific area
and feature, their change in situation, the trends and their
prediction. Geospatial analysis ranges from simple arithmetic
logical operations to complex model analysis.
Importance of Spatial Analysis
➔ Understanding Spatial Relationships: Spatial analysis
helps in understanding the relationships between different
geographic features or phenomena, such as proximity,
connectivity, and spatial auto correlation.
➔ Decision Making: It assists in decision-making processes
across various sectors such as urban planning, resource
management, environmental conservation, public health, and
transportation.
➔ Identifying Patterns and Trends: Spatial analysis enables
the identification of spatial patterns and trends in data, helping to
uncover hidden insights and inform policy formulation and
strategic planning.
➔ Predictive Modeling: By analyzing spatial data, it is
possible to develop predictive models for forecasting future
trends, such as urban growth, disease outbreaks, or natural
disasters, allowing for proactive measures to be taken.
➔ Optimization and Efficiency: Spatial analysis can optimize
resource allocation, route planning, and infrastructure
development by considering spatial constraints and optimizing
spatial configurations.
➔ Environmental Analysis: It aids in environmental analysis
by assessing spatial patterns of environmental variables,
identifying areas of environmental risk, and facilitating
environmental impact assessments.

Types of Spatial Analysis

Single-Layer Spatial Analysis

In single-layer spatial analysis, only one layer or dataset
containing spatial information is considered. This type of
analysis typically focuses on examining the characteristics and
relationships within a single dataset without explicitly
considering interactions with other layers.
Examples of Single-Layer Spatial Analysis:
 Spatial Descriptive Analysis: Analyzing the distribution of a
single variable across a geographic area, such as population
density or land use distribution.
 Spatial Exploratory Analysis: Exploring spatial patterns
and relationships within a single dataset, such as identifying
clusters of high or low values using techniques like spatial
auto correlation or hot spot analysis.
  Spatial Inferential Analysis: Making inferences or testing
hypotheses about spatial relationships within a single dataset,
such as conducting spatial regression to understand the
relationship between variables while considering spatial
dependencies.

Multi-Layer Spatial Analysis (Double-Layer Analysis)

In multi-layer spatial analysis, two or more layers or datasets
containing spatial information are considered simultaneously.
This type of analysis focuses on examining the interactions and
relationships between different layers to gain deeper insights into
spatial phenomena.
Examples of Multi-Layer Spatial Analysis:
Overlay Analysis: Combining multiple spatial datasets to
identify areas where different features intersect or overlap,
such as determining suitable locations for new facilities by
overlaying land use, transportation, and demographic data.
Network Analysis: Analyzing spatial networks, such as road
networks or utility networks, by considering both the
network structure and attributes associated with network
elements.
In summary, while single-layer spatial analysis focuses on
analyzing individual datasets, multi-layer spatial analysis
considers interactions between multiple layers to provide a more
comprehensive understanding of spatial phenomena and support
complex decision-making processes.
Classification and Measurement Function
Measurements describe the aspects of geographical data. They
include the properties of objects such as length area shape etc.
and also the relationship between the objects such as distance,
directions etc. Measurements on spatial data includes:
i)Location ii)Distance iii)Area
The way we measure these parameters vary in vector and raster
datasets.
Measurement of vector data
•The primitives of vector data sets are points, lines and
polygons. The related geometric measurements are length-
distance, area-size etc.
•A location property of a vector feature is always stored in GIS,
a single coordinate pair for point or list of coordinate pairs for
polylines and polygons.
•Length is a geometric property associated with polylines. In
GIS we can measure length of consecutive line segments.
•The area size is associated with polygon features. It can be
computed but usually stored as an extra attribute in the polygon
attribute table.
Measurements of Raster data
•Measurements on Raster data are simpler due to the regularity
in the cells. The area of each cell is constant throughout the map
determined by cell location.
•Together with the location of anchor point, this is the only
information stored in the raster so all the information are stored
on the basis of this all other geometric properties are to be
computed.
•Location of individual point derives from raster’s anchor point,
cell resolution and position of cell in the raster.
•Area size of a raster is a cell size multiplied with the number of
cells comprising the feature
•The distance in raster is measured as the distance between the
consecutive cells.

Spatial Selection Queries

It refers to the selection of spatial features based on their spatial
relationship with other features and are used to answer spatial
questions.
Selection queries can be made in two different ways:
I) Selection by attribute
II) Selection by location

Selection/Query by attribute
This is a method to select features in a layer using an attribute
query.
This allows us SQL query expression that is used to select
features that matches the selection criteria.
E.g.
Selection of VDC with attribute condition “Area”<8000sq. Km
Selection of municipalities of Kaski districts from ‘Nepal
Municipalities” boundary data.
Process to perform Selection by attribute in GIS
1.Click Selection > Select By Attributes to open the Select By
Attributes dialog box.
2.Choose the layer to perform the selection against.
3.Specify the selection method.
4.Enter a query expression using one of the following methods:
 Create a query using the expression building tools.
•

•Type a query into the selection window.

•Load a query saved to disk.
5.Validate your query expression by clicking Verify.
6.Click OK or Apply to execute your selection expression and
work with the selection results.
Selection by Location
The Select By Location tool lets you select features based on
their location relative to features in another layer. For e.g. if you
want to know how many homes were affected by a recent flood,
you could select all the homes that fall within the flood
boundary.
Steps
1.On the Map tab, in the Selection group, click Select By
Location.
2.Specify the input layer containing the features that will be
evaluated against the other layer. The selection will be applied to
the input layer.
3.Identify the target layer from which features will be selected .
4.Specify the spatial relationship rule if different from the
default.
5.Set the layer for selecting the input features based on their
relationship to this layer.
6.Specify the selection method if you want to change how the
selection is applied and what to do if a selection already exists.
7.Click OK to execute the tool and work with your selection
results. Zoom to your selection by clicking the results count at
the bottom of the view.
The following spatial query methods are supported by ‘Selection
by Location’
• Intersect • Are identical to
• Contain • Are within
• Completely Contain • Touch the boundary of ….
etc
Classification of Data
Classification is defined as the grouping of the entities into
categories based on their shared characteristics. Classification
aggregates the data and map features using a number of classes.
Reclassification is to reassign the new thematic values or codes
to the newly merged features.

Classification of data can be categorized into two groups:

1.Manual classification
2.Automatic / standard classification
Manual classification
•Manual classification of data refers to the data classification
technique that allows the categorizing of similar data into a class
as defined by the users themselves (i.e. the user are allowed to
generate the classes as their choice).
•In this type of classification, user indicate which is or which
ones are the classification parameters.
Applications of manual classifications
1.To emphasize areas below a certain elevation level that are
susceptible to flooding.
2.For isolating and highlighting ranges of data i.e. if a dataset
has an overall range of 0.0465 to 0.1736 and it is required to
isolate the higher values, all values below 0.15 to one class and
all values above to a second class can be manually assigned.

Automatic Classification
•Automatic classification of data refers to the data classification
technique that allows the categorizing of similar data into a class
of certain class range generated by different method according to
the objective of analysis.
•In automatic classification, user only specifies number of the
classes in the output dataset. The system automatically
determines boundary of classes.
•Such classification has two main components:
1) one is no. of classes into which data is to be organized
2) other is method by which classes are assigned.
The various methods for automatic classification are:
Equal interval
Use equal interval to divide the range of attribute values into
equal-sized sub ranges. This allows you to specify the number of
intervals, and the class breaks based on the value range are
automatically determined. For example, if you specify three
classes for a field whose values range from 0 to 300, three
classes with ranges of 0–100, 101–200, and 201–300 are created.
Equal interval is best applied to familiar data ranges, such as
percentages and temperature.
Quantile
In this class, the range of possible values is divided into unequal-
sized intervals so that the number of values is the same in each
class. Classes at the extremes and middle have the same number
of values.
Because features are grouped in equal numbers in each class
using quantile classification, the resulting map can often be
misleading.
Standard Deviation
The standard deviation classification method shows you how
much a feature's attribute value varies from the mean. The mean
and standard deviation are calculated automatically. Class breaks
are created with equal value ranges that are a proportion of the
standard deviation—usually at intervals of one, one-half, one-
third, or one-fourth—using mean values and the standard
deviations from the mean.
Overlay Functions and Neighbourhood Analysis
Overlay is the spatial operation in which two or more map layers
are registered to a common coordinate system and are
superimposed for the purpose of showing relationship between
the map layers.

➔ The overlay features creates the composite map by

combining the diverse datasets.

➔ Overlay operations combine the geometrics and attributes of

the two features to create an output.
➔ Overlay operation can be performed on both vector and raster
datasets

➔ Overlay can answer one of the most basic question "What's

on top of what?"

For example:

a) What land use is on top of what soil type?

b) What parcels are within the 100-year floodplain? ("Within" is

just another way of saying "on top of.")

c) What roads are within what counties?

Vector/feature Overlay
The vector data layer consists of point lines and polygons. The
vector overlay operation involves the superimposing of these
layers to enhance interpretation and analysis.
➔ Overlay of vector data updates the topological relationship
between the feature layers.
➔ During the process of overlay the attribute data associated
with the data layers also gets merged. The resulting attribute
table consists both the attribute tables.
➔ Various types of vector overlay tool set are union,
intersection, symmetric difference, clip, erase etc. as shown in
the figure.
➔ The suitable example and application of vector overlay
operation is intersection operation between parcel boundary
shape file layer and purposed highway polygon shape file layer
gives the total land to be acquired for the project.
Vector overlay can be perform on different type of map features
a. Point in polygon
b. Line in polygon
c. Polygon in polygon, etc

Point-in-Polygon: to find out the polygon in which the point

falls. E.g. the ward polygon that contains telephone booth.
Line-in-Polygon: Lines are broken at each area object boundary
to form new line segments and new attributes created for each
output line specifying the area it belongs to.
Polygon-in-polygon: algorithm performs overlay of two layers
of area objects. Boundaries of polygons are broken at each
intersection and new areas/polygons are created and the attribute
table result is a joined form of two input attribute tables.
Neighbourhood Functions
Neighbourhood functions are used to evaluate the characteristics
of an area surrounding a specific location. Neighbourhood
operations evaluate the characteristics of an area surrounding a
specific location. They can be performed on point, line, or
polygon vector datasets as well as on raster datasets.
Buffer operation
Buffering is the process of creating an output polygon layer
containing a zone (or zones) of a specified width around an input
point, line, or polygon feature. It is particularly suited for
determining the area of influence around feature of interest.
Buffering is the creation of a zone of interest around an entity.
Buffering is possible in both vector and raster GIS. In case of
vector datasets, neighbourhood analysis is frequently used to
perform basic searches.
Consider a department stores is our target then its neighborhood
can be defined as:
• An area within 1km distance
• An area within 2km travel distance
• All buildings within 5km travel distance
• All other clinics within 10 minutes travel time
Buffer Generation process in GIS:
1.Open ArcMap and add the data required for the analysis.

2.Click onthe‘arctoolbox’ icon then, expand ‘analysis tools’.

3.Again, expand ‘proximity’ and double click on ‘buffer’.

4.Provide ‘inputfeature’ and ‘output feature class’.

5.Enter the distance valueand the unit as per the requirement.

6.Change all other optional parameters according to the purpose

of buffer.
Proximity analysis
Proximity is the ability to identify any feature that is near any
other feature based on location, attribute value or a specific
distance. This technique is primarily concerned with the
proximity of one feature to another. While buffer zones are often
created with the use of one command or option in vector GIS, a
different approach is used in many raster GISs.
Proximity analysis is the measurement of distances from a point,
line or boundaries of polygons. It involves many functions in
GIS like buffer, multi-ring buffer, create Thiessen polygon, and
so on.
The word proximity means ‘nearness’, and is often qualified by
the word close. For example some of the queries it can answer
are:
✔ How close is this well to a landfill?
✔ Do any road pass within 1000 meters of a stream?
✔ What is the distance between two location?
✔ What is the nearest are farthest feature form something?
✔ What is the shortest street network route from some location
to another?
3D Analysis
Physical surface of earth is not homogeneous and regular. The
mass distribution is different across the all places as a result
density also varies along with elevation. So, presentation of earth
surface is challenging due to its diverse feature, dynamic nature
and complex geographical features.
We need to model the elvation of earth surface for various
applications such as
Surveying and mapping
Construction and development
Strategic planning
Environmental protection
Disaster management
Traditionally, elevation of terrain can be modelled in many ways
such as:
Spot Height
Contour line
Hill Shading
Layer tints