Spatial data analysis

This method comprises techniques used to analyse spatial data, such as Thiessen polygon analysis (the calculation of the influence of different centres of human activity); X-tent principle (the inference of the size of a centre's territory from settlement size, population and storage capacity); Cost/friction analysis (determination of a distance measure based on the minimisation of friction or cost for a single path or an entire surface); Network analysis (analysis of flows along topologically linked data, for example, identification of the shortest path between two locations on a road network); Spatial accessibility analysis (determination of an aggregate measure of how reachable locations are from a given location); Spatial buffering (i.e. Proximity analysis. Refers to the determination of a zone of a specified distance around a spatial feature); Line-of-sight analysis (i.e. viewshed analysis. Refers to the determination of the intervisibility of different locations in a spatial model); Predictive spatial modelling (i.e. of archaeological site locations. Refers to the establishment of a set of testable hypotheses, which attempts to predict locations of interest in a spatial model); Spatial filtering/smoothing (A technique used to remove or reduce local noise or high frequency signal within spatial data, and therefore reveal the global pattern or trend).