Peter Bruce (President and Founder-
Statistics.com) says, “Wandering around Memphis, TN recently, I was able to use
my phone to tell me the value of a mansion I was passing by, and locate the
hotel famous for letting ducks use the elevator. I could also have used
it to find Graceland, but some tasks still lie well within the realm of the
human brain. Location data is now the fastest growing type of data, and its
effective use is the province of spatial statistics.”
Learn more about the statistical foundations
of geospatial analysis in David Unwin's online course "Spatial Statistics
with Geographic Information Systems (GIS)," at Statistics.com. For more
detail please check at http://www.statistics.com/spatial-statistics-GIS/.
Course Program:
Course outline: The course
is structured as follows
SESSION 1: Some Basics:
·
Geographical data
·
Statistics
·
Describing spatial data using maps
SESSION 2: The Analysis of Patterns in Point Data:
·
Introductory methods for detecting non-randomness in dot/pin map
distributions
SESSION 3: The Analysis of Patterns in Area Data:
·
Detecting and measuring spatial autocorrelation in lattice data
SESSION 4: The Analysis of Continuous Field Data:
·
Creating contour-type maps using inverse distance weighting and
geostatistical methods
Note that the course does not concentrate on the analysis
of spatially continuous data using methods that are collectively referred to as
geostatistics. Lesson 4 has a brief introduction to the basic concepts as used
in interpolation, but this is all.
HOMEWORK:
In this course
the homework is a mixture of some simple exercises and consists of guided data
analysis problems using public domain software.
In addition to
assigned readings, this course also has an end of course data modeling project,
and supplemental video lectures.
The instructor, Dr.
David Unwin, is Emeritus Chair of Geography at Birkbeck College, and
Visiting Professor in the Department of Geomatic Engineering at University
College, both in the University of London. His work using and developing
spatial statistics in research stretches back some 40 years, and he has
authored over a hundred academic papers in the field, together with a series of
texts, of which the most recent are his “Geographic Information Analysis, 2nd
edition” (with D. O'Sullivan, 2010) and a series of edited collections at the
interface between geography and computer science in “Visualization in GIS”
(Hearnshaw and Unwin, 1994), “Spatial Analytical Perspectives on GIS” (Fischer,
Scholten and Unwin, 1996) “Virtual Reality in Geography” (Fisher and Unwin,
2002) and, most recently representation issues in “Re-presenting GIS” (Fisher
and Unwin, 2005). Having developed the world's first wholly internet-delivered
Master's program in GIS in 1998, David Unwin has considerable experience of
teaching and tutoring online.
Participants can ask questions and exchange comments directly with Dr.
Unwin via a private discussion board during the course.
Aim of the course:
Spatial analysis often uses methods adapted
from conventional analysis to address problems in which spatial location is the
most important explanatory variable. This course, which is directed
particularly to students with backgrounds in either computing or statistics but
who lack a background in the necessary geospatial concepts, will explain and
give examples of the analysis that can be conducted in a geographic information
system such as ArcGIS or Mapinfo. The motivation is simple: it is one thing to
run a GIS, but quite another to use it analytically to help answer questions
such as:
- Is there an unusual cluster of crimes/cases
of a disease here that we need to worry about?
- Do these data show variation across the
country that I need to know about?
- What is the most probable air temperature
here?
In the course we will explore methods that
enable answers to be given to these, and similar, questions involving spatial
variation.
Who Should Take This Course?
Analysts and researchers who need to know how
to use and interpret the data from Geographic Information Systems (GIS's),
including those in environmental analysis and management, banking, insurance,
logistics, law enforcement services, defence, media, real estate, retail and
more.
You will be able to ask questions
and exchange comments with the instructors via a private discussion board
throughout the course. The courses take place online at
statistics.com in a series of 4 weekly lessons and assignments, and require
about 15 hours/week. Participate at your own convenience; there are no
set times when you must be online. You have the flexibility to work a bit every
day, if that is your preference, or concentrate your work in just a couple of
days.
We, the Center for eLearning and Training
(C-eLT), Pune, partner with Statistics.com and offer these courses to Indian
participants at special prices payable in INR.
Call: 020 6680 0300 / 322
Websites:
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