An optimal zoning approach to the study of spatially aggregated data

The quantitative revolution in geography, planning and the other spatial sciences involved the importation and application of statistical methods and mathematical model-building techniques which place little emphasis on the importance of space. Currently many studies are based on the application of a paradigm and a methodology which are intrinsically aspatial; they justify the adjective ‘spatial’ only in the limited sense that they use spatial data. This is particularly characteristic of those studies which are concerned with the analysis and modelling of data which have been spatially aggregated one or more times.