A Spatial Econometrics Workbench: Towards Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Spatial Data Analysis

The inclusion of spatial analytical functionality in general and spatial data analysis in particular in a GIS environment has evolved considerably during the past decades. This started with early efforts during the late 1980s, primarily in academia. Those early implementations linked commercial GIS to commercial statistical software, using various methods of loose and close coupling. Most of the methods implemented at the time remained non-spatial. Since then, major progress has been achieved. Today, there is a proliferation of spatial data analytical tools, toolboxes and plug-ins for GIS, both proprietary and open source. However, most of the analytical extensions are still focused on a traditional desktop environment. In this respect, a critical but underestimated factor in the dissemination and adoption of spatial analytical techniques was the explosive growth of the internet as a means of distributing geographic information. These distribution activities have evolved beyond simply providing geographic data or maps on a web site to an encompassing notion of geoportals, spatial data infrastructures, and distributed geographic information services