Spatial Synthesis: A Research Program

Abstract

“Spatial Analysis” is a term in current use in a variety of disciplines: from geography to regional analysis, to economics, to anthropology, to (no doubt) a host of others [1]. Merriam-Webster’s online Collegiate Dictionary defines “analysis” as a “separation of a whole into its component parts” [2]. Often, however, one wishes to consider not only separation but also composition: the composition of the whole from a set of parts. Thus, the same source defines “synthesis” as “the composition or combination of parts or elements so as to form a whole.”