Are there geographic clusters of disease cases, or hotspots of crime? Can the geography of air quality be matched to where people hospitalized for respiratory complaints actually live? Spatial data is data about the world where the attribute of interest and its location on the earth's surface are recorded. This comprehensive overview of the subject shows how the above questions can be tackled. It is written for students and researchers in geography, economics, social science, the environmental sciences and statistics.

In recent years there has been a growing concern for the development of both efficient and effective ways to handle space-time problems. Such developments should be theoretically as well as empirically oriented. Regardless of which of these two arenas one enters. the impression is quickly gained that contemporary wO, rk on dynamic and evolutionary models has not proved to be as illuminating and rewarding as first anticipated. Historically speaking. the single. most important lesson this avenue of research has provided. is that linear models are woefully inadequate when dominant non-linear...

Handbook of Spatial Epidemiology explains how to model epidemiological problems and improve inference about disease etiology from a geographical perspective. Top epidemiologists, geographers, and statisticians share interdisciplinary viewpoints on analyzing spatial data and space time variations in disease incidences. These analyses can provide important information that leads to better decision making in public health.

The first part of the book addresses general issues related to epidemiology, GIS, environmental studies, clustering, and ecological...