Design and Usability of an Enhanced Geographic Information System for Exploration of Multivariate Health Statistics

Abstract The multidimensional nature of many types of data in modern geography calls for creative and innovative approaches to their analysis. Statisticians have recently developed methods for exploring and visualizing large, multivariate datasets, but cartographers and geographers in general have only recently begun to integrate these methods for use with spatial and spatiotemporal datasets that are multivariate in character. This article will present an example of such an integration—an environment for visualization of health statistics—as a case study to demonstrate the philosophical and practical advantages of geovisualization systems for the exploration of complex spatiotemporal information. Emphasis is placed on the encouragement of creative thinking about geographic phenomena through the use of such data-rich graphical tools. *I am pleased to acknowledge support for portions of this work provided by a contract from the NIH-National Cancer Institute and a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (#EIA9983451). Special thanks to both Dr. Alan M. MacEachren and Dr. Linda J. Pickle for their generous assistance through all phases of this research. The ArcView 3.2 application (including all scripts and interface tools) described herein is available for no charge. Please contact the author at robedsall@asu.edu, or by standard mail.

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