Implementing spatial segregation measures in GIS: Fid-Bau Portal

Implementing spatial segregation measures in GIS

Wong, David W.S.

AbstractSegregation can be regarded as the spatial separation of different population groups. Most studies of segregation so far have relied on aspatial measures that are not effective to differentiate different spatial distribution patterns among population groups. Spatial measures have been introduced but have not been adopted widely because they are difficult to compute even with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). However, it is still logical to employ GIS technology to compute spatial segregation measures. A previous implementation attempt was successful, but inefficient and suffered from several short comings. This paper describes a recent effort to implement a set of spatial segregation measures in a GIS environment. An integrative approach is adopted to take advantage of various recent advances in GIS technology. Algorithms designed to implement spatial segregation measures consist of the general procedures to extract spatial information from feature data and to combine spatial information with attribute (population) data to derive the indices. Different types of spatial information include geometric characteristics and spatial relationship of the areal units, and the location information of the population. Using ArcView GIS and its Avenue programming tool as an application example, computations of various spatial segregation indices were implemented as additional functions in an ArcView user interface.