Spatial statistics are a set of exploratory techniques for describing and modeling spatial distributions, patterns, processes, and relationships. Although spatial statistics are similar to traditional statistics, they also integrate spatial relationships into the calculations. In spatial statistics, proximity is important. Things that are closer together are more related.

ArcGIS includes the Spatial Statistics Tools toolbox available for all license levels of its desktop software. Included with this toolbox are a number of toolsets that help analyze spatial distributions, patterns, clustering, and relationships in GIS datasets. This book will cover each of the toolsets provided with the Spatial Statistics Tools toolbox in ArcGIS to provide a comprehensive survey of the spatial statistics tools available to ArcGIS users.

The R platform for data analysis is a programming language and software platform for statistical computing and graphics, and it is supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing. The R language is widely used among statisticians and data analysts for developing statistical software and data analysis. In addition, R can be used for spatial statistical analysis and can also be integrated with ArcGIS through the R-ArcGIS Bridge.

This book also contains an introductory chapter for the R programming language as well as a chapter that covers the installation of the R-ArcGIS Bridge and the creation of custom ArcGIS script tools written with R.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics: