What exactly is Spatial Analysis ??

[Malcolm Williamson]

On Fri, 22 Nov 1996, Harini Nagendra wrote:

> On Thu, 21 Nov 1996, Malcolm Williamson wrote:
> > > 
> > To me, "spatial analysis" implies analysis of a point or points using a 
> > technique that considers spatial placement of data. 
> Just wondering... why neccesarily only point data? What about continuously 
> varying data, along a line for eg? If you want to look at the variation 
> in such data along a particular direction then by your definition does that 
> come under spatial analysis? 
> Harini Nagendra
> Centre for Ecological Sciences
> Indian Institute of Science
> Bangalore - 560012
> India
> 
Your "point" is taken. :) My definition was not meant to be anything 
absolute; I was merely trying to help someone out. I would also argue 
that any _analysis_ done in GRASS, anyway, is inherently calculated based 
on points in space, regardless of whether the _data_ represents lines or 
surfaces. Lines are composed of vertices, and surfaces are dynamically 
resampled to a regular grid of x-y points in GRASS. Anyway, a theoretical 
discussion of spatial analysis would be better suited to the GIS-L list. 
Regards,
	-Malcolm Williamson