The Linked ArcView 2.1TM and XGobi Environment — GIS, Dynamic Statistical Graphics, and Spatial Data

This paper reports on research into interactive, dynamic statistical graphics (DSG) applied to spatial data maintained within a geographic information system (GIS). We developed a bidirectional link between ArcView 2.1TM, a GIS, and XGobi, a DSG program. Multivariate data, collected at geographic locations, is passed from ArcView to XGobi and can be dynamically analyzed. The relation between the points in XGobi and the spatial locations from where they were collected is maintained so that points in either ArcView or XGobi can be brushed and the corresponding points in the other application are identified immediately. Special features (or flavors) of the link are the handling of multivariate attribute data, spatial cumulative distribution functions, variogram–cloud plots, spatially lagged scatterplots, and multivariate variogram–cloud plots.