AN APPLICATION OF GIS TO THE MEASUREMENT OF SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION

This paper presents a GIS-based program that fully automates the measu rement of spatial autocorrelation. In addition to being operational an d practical, the program is flexible, as it allows the researcher to t est alternative definitions of locational proximity between area objec ts. The program is applied to the study of the spatial impact of growt h-control policies in the San Francisco Bay Region. This application e xample demonstrates that the technique of spatial autocorrelation is p otentially useful for the study of the spatial consequences of public policies, and that GIS can effectively facilitate this kind of study.