The class today discussed topics of interest within the ArcGIS Spatial Statistics toolbox using the Spatial Statistics Blog as a starting point (http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2010/07/13/spatial-statistics-resources/).   Most students looked for concepts or tools that would be useful to their specific research needs.  For me, I was interested in the discussion surrounding modeling spatial relationships and analyzing patterns and how this might apply to the humpback whale data I am using for my own project.

Of particular interest was the “Conceptualization of Spatial Relationships” (http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/#/Modeling_spatial_relationships/005p00000005000000/) webpage.  This concept is important for most of the tools used in the Spatial Stats toolbox and is critical for data in which there is some degree of locational uncertainty – what is the best spatial conceptualization for your data so that the tool output makes sense with your data?

Other interesting points made in class today include:

The discussion on regression and measuring geographic distributions.