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GeoSurveillance: a GIS-based system for the detection and monitoring of spatial clusters

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Abstract

This article introduces a software package named GeoSurveillance that combines spatial statistical techniques and GIS routines to perform tests for the detection and monitoring of spatial clustering. GeoSurveillance provides both retrospective and prospective tests. While retrospective tests are applied to spatial data collected for a particular point in time, prospective tests attempt to incorporate the dynamic nature of spatial patterns via analyzing time-series data to detect emergent clusters as quickly as possible. This article will outline the structure of GeoSurveillance as well as describe the statistical cluster detection methods implemented in the software. It concludes with an illustration of the use of the software to analyze the spatial pattern of low birth weights in Los Angeles County, California.

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Acknowledgments

This project was partly supported by Grant-in-aid of Southwestern Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy. The authors wish to thank the Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, for providing data for the case study. We also gratefully acknowledge the support received from National Cancer Institute Grant R01 CA92693-01, Grant 1R01 ES09816–01 from the National Institutes of Health, Grant No.98-IJ-CX-K008 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice, and National Science Foundation Award No. BCS-9905900.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Dr. Rm. 270, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112-9155, USA

    Ikuho Yamada

  2. Department of Geography and Department of Biostatistics, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, 105 Wilkeson Quad, Buffalo, NY, 14261, USA

    Peter A. Rogerson

  3. Geospatial Information Research Center, Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, 224 Simin-ro, Dongangu, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 431-712, Korea

    Gyoungju Lee

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  1. Ikuho Yamada
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Correspondence to Ikuho Yamada.

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Yamada, I., Rogerson, P.A. & Lee, G. GeoSurveillance: a GIS-based system for the detection and monitoring of spatial clusters. J Geogr Syst 11, 155–173 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-009-0080-1

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