Web-based Exploratory Data Analysis (web-eda): Visualisation Meets Spatial Analysis

This paper provides an overview of the development in visualisation and spatial analysis. It has been found that, from paper maps to web-based visualisation, the roles of maps have changed from “display and storage” to “display and exploration” and “storage and linking”. The variables for presentations have been expanded from traditional set of visual variables to fives set of variables, i.e. visual variable, screen variables, dynamic variable, exploratory acts and web variables. It has also been found that spatial analysis has also undergone similar transition. The concept of space has been expanded from Euclidean space to other spaces such as social space, perceptual space, topological space, scale space and so on. The analysis methods have also been expanded from traditional statistics to spatial statistics, and to a broader concept including modelling, computation and optimisation methods. However, visualisation and spatial analysis are moving together to form web-based exploratory data analysis (Web-EDA), which focuses on active collaboration between the visual and numeric/statistical analysis. (Indeed, the emerging of Web-EDA also justifies the grouping of these two topics into a working group).