Summary - Spatial Data Analysis: An Introduction for GIS Users - page 174

populations. For more specii c material, see the further reading sections at the end of
each chapter.
h ere are many other issues that are the focus of research ef orts. Looking at key
journals such as the International Journal of Geographical Information Science , Trans ac tions
in GIS , International Journal of Remote Sensing , Computers and Geosciences , and others
will reveal the range and extent of research that is ongoing. As with any well-developed
discipline, it is easy to become lost in the detail of a plethora of diverse applications.
However, there are plenty of introductory starting points to guide your ef orts, as the
further reading lists in this topic suggest. h e topic website provides specii c material
to support use of this topic as well as links to other relevant websites and information
about other material that may be useful.
Summary and conclusions
This topic has merely scraped the surface of spatial data analysis. Hopefully, it will have
successfully introduced some new ideas that will aid understanding of other issues dis-
cussed in the literature. It is also hoped that it has assisted more in developing under-
standing than in generating confusion. The analysis of spatial data is a commercially and
academically highly signifi cant fi eld. It is hoped that this topic will have introduced some
approaches and concepts to a broader readership and illustrated something of the
breadth of tools available and the problems that they can be used to solve.