Geographic information systems (GIS) are having tremendous impacts on many scientific and application domains. The traditional subfield of spatial analysis is witnessing a major resurgence and enhancement due to GIS and geographical information science (GISci), an interdisciplinary field focussing on the theory and methodology underlying GIS software. The interdisciplinary field of geographic information systems for transportation (GIS-T) has emerged to focus on the role of GIS in transportation analysis and planning. This paper suggests the benefits of closer linkages between spatial analysis, GISci, and transportation through a focussed review of spatial analytical issues and their potential contributions to GIS-T. Specifically, this paper reviews the following issues: (i) modifiable areal units; (ii) boundary problems and spatial sampling; (iii) spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity; and (iv) alternative representations of geographic environments. The discussion highlights the general issues as well as identifies their specific relevance to GIS-T. In addition, this paper identifies some emerging tools from GISci that can address these spatial analytical issues in GIS-T. (A)
Abstract