Stewart Fotheringham

Last updated
Stewart Fotheringham
Born
Alexander Stewart Fotheringham

(1954-02-02) 2 February 1954 (age 69)
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom, US
Alma mater University of Aberdeen
McMaster University
Scientific career
Institutions University at Buffalo
University of Newcastle
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
University of St Andrews
Arizona State University
Thesis Spatial Structure, Spatial Interaction, and Distance-Decay Parameters  (1980)
Doctoral advisor Michael J. Webber

Alexander Stewart Fotheringham (born February 2, 1954) is a British-American geographer known for his contributions to quantitative geography and geographic information science (GIScience). [1] He holds a Ph.D. in geography from McMaster University and is a Regents professor of computational spatial science in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. [2] [3] He has contributed to the literature surrounding spatial analysis and spatial statistics, particularly in the development of geographically weighted regression (GWR) and multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR). [2] [4] [5]

Contents

Education

Fotheringham received a BSc in geography from the University of Aberdeen in 1976. He received an M.A. in 1978 and Ph.D. in 1980, both in geography from McMaster University. [2] [3] [6] His research focuses on developing and applying spatial statistics, mathematical, and computational methods within the discipline of quantitative geography. He has worked both on the theoretical and applied side of quantitative geography. [7] His applied research interests include crime, public health, and human migration. [2]

Career

University positions

After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1980, he worked as a professor at University at Buffalo, becoming a full professor in 1988. [1] From 1991 to 1992, he held the position of professor of quantitative geography at the University of Newcastle. [8] From 1993 to 1994, Fotheringham worked as an assistant chair in the Department of Geography at the State University of New York. [8]

In 1994, he returned to the University of Newcastle as a professor of quantitative geography and the director of the North-East Regional Research Laboratory. He remained in this position until 2004. [8] Fotheringham became a visiting research fellow at the University of Leeds until 2006. [8] Simultaneously, from 2004 to 2011, he assumed the SFI research professor and director at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. [8]

Between 2011 and 2014, Fotheringham served as the director of the Centre for GeoInformatics and was a professor of quantitative geography at the University of St Andrews. [8] In 2014, Fotheringham began his tenure as a professor of computational spatial science at Arizona State University.

Fotheringham published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters during his career. [2] [3]

Professional affiliations

From 1995 to 1998, Fotheringham was elected as the chair of the Quantitative Methods Study Group of the Royal Geographical Society. [8] In 2009, he was appointed as Ireland's representative on the Governance Committee of the EU Joint Planning Initiative on Urban Europe, giving him an active involvement in shaping urban planning initiatives. [8]

In 2014, Fotheringham was selected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Mapping Science Committee. [9] [10] This committee seeks to organize research and inform on methods to use spatial data ethically to inform policy and benefit society. [9]

Research

Geographically Weighted Regression

Fotheringham contributed to GIScience and spatial statistics with his work in developing Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR). [4] GWR was first developed as a statistical technique in the 1990s by Fotheringham, Chris Brundson, and Martin Charloton. [5] [11] [12] Fotheringham has continued to be involved in researching expanding upon GWR, and its applications, in the years since. [12]

GWR is designed to address the limitations of traditional global regression models, such as Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), which assume that relationships between variables are global; that is, constant across space. [13] In GWR, regression coefficients (parameters) are estimated locally for each geographic location or point, allowing for the modeling of spatial heterogeneity. [5] Geographically Weighted Regression is a cornerstone of GIS and spatial analysis, and is built into ArcGIS, as a package for the R (programming language), and as a plugin for QGIS. [14] [15] [16]

Geographical and Temporal Weighted Regression

Time is recognized as significant to spatial analysis, with a substantial amount of literature within the discipline of time geography. [17] However, incorporating both space and time is a significant challenge for researchers. Fotheringham addressed this problem in his 2015 paper titled "Geographical and Temporal Weighted Regression (GTWR)." [17] GTWR builds upon GWR by incorporating the dimension of time into the analysis. [17] This is accomplished by deriving both spatial and temporal bandwidths and using them to construct a weighted matrix. [17] GTWR is available as packages in R, such as GWmodelS. [18]

Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression

Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) builds upon GWR by allowing for the comparison of variables at different spatial scales| [7] [19] This is accomplished by allowing for different neighborhood bandwidths for each variable. [7] [19] MGWR is available both within ArcGIS and as Python scripts published by a team of researchers including Fotheringham. [19] [20] [21] Fortheringham spoke at UCGIS on applying MGWR in a webinar titled Measuring the "Unmeasurable: Models of Geographical Context." [22]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waldo R. Tobler</span> American geographer

Waldo Rudolph Tobler was an American-Swiss geographer and cartographer. Tobler is regarded as one of the most influential geographers and cartographers of the late 20th century and early 21st century. Tobler is most well known for his proposed idea that "Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things," which has come to be referred to as the "first law of geography." The first law of geography is widely cited, and continues to be relevant today. He proposed a second law as well: "The phenomenon external to an area of interest affects what goes on inside."

A GIS software program is a computer program to support the use of a geographic information system, providing the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important. The GIS software industry encompasses a broad range of commercial and open-source products that provide some or all of these capabilities within various information technology architectures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Frank Goodchild</span> British-American geographer

Michael Frank Goodchild is a British-American geographer. He is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After nineteen years at the University of Western Ontario, including three years as chair, he moved to Santa Barbara in 1988, as part of the establishment of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, which he directed for over 20 years. In 2008, he founded the UCSB Center for Spatial Studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tobler's first law of geography</span> The first of several proposed laws of geography

The First Law of Geography, according to Waldo Tobler, is "everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things." This first law is the foundation of the fundamental concepts of spatial dependence and spatial autocorrelation and is utilized specifically for the inverse distance weighting method for spatial interpolation and to support the regionalized variable theory for kriging. The first law of geography is the fundamental assumption used in all spatial analysis.

The quantitative revolution (QR) was a paradigm shift that sought to develop a more rigorous and systematic methodology for the discipline of geography. It came as a response to the inadequacy of regional geography to explain general spatial dynamics. The main claim for the quantitative revolution is that it led to a shift from a descriptive (idiographic) geography to an empirical law-making (nomothetic) geography. The quantitative revolution occurred during the 1950s and 1960s and marked a rapid change in the method behind geographical research, from regional geography into a spatial science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health geography</span>

Health geography is the application of geographical information, perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care. Medical geography, a sub-discipline of or sister field of health geography, focuses on understanding spatial patterns of health and disease as related to the natural and social environment. Conventionally, there are two primary areas of research within medical geography: the first deals with the spatial distribution and determinants of morbidity and mortality, while the second deals with health planning, help-seeking behavior, and the provision of health services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spatial analysis</span> Formal techniques which study entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties

Spatial analysis is any of the formal techniques which studies entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties. Spatial analysis includes a variety of techniques using different analytic approaches, especially spatial statistics. It may be applied in fields as diverse as astronomy, with its studies of the placement of galaxies in the cosmos, or to chip fabrication engineering, with its use of "place and route" algorithms to build complex wiring structures. In a more restricted sense, spatial analysis is geospatial analysis, the technique applied to structures at the human scale, most notably in the analysis of geographic data. It may also be applied to genomics, as in transcriptomics data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modifiable areal unit problem</span> Source of statistical bias

The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) is a source of statistical bias that can significantly impact the results of statistical hypothesis tests. MAUP affects results when point-based measures of spatial phenomena are aggregated into spatial partitions or areal units as in, for example, population density or illness rates. The resulting summary values are influenced by both the shape and scale of the aggregation unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Critical geography</span> Variant of social science that seeks to interpret and change the world

Critical geography is theoretically informed geographical scholarship that promotes social justice, liberation, and leftist politics. Critical geography is also used as an umbrella term for Marxist, feminist, postmodern, poststructural, queer, left-wing, and activist geography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography</span> Study of lands and inhabitants of Earth

Geography is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and come to be. While geography is specific to Earth, many concepts can be applied more broadly to other celestial bodies in the field of planetary science. Geography has been called "a bridge between natural science and social science disciplines."

A boundary problem in analysis is a phenomenon in which geographical patterns are differentiated by the shape and arrangement of boundaries that are drawn for administrative or measurement purposes. The boundary problem occurs because of the loss of neighbors in analyses that depend on the values of the neighbors. While geographic phenomena are measured and analyzed within a specific unit, identical spatial data can appear either dispersed or clustered depending on the boundary placed around the data. In analysis with point data, dispersion is evaluated as dependent of the boundary. In analysis with areal data, statistics should be interpreted based upon the boundary.

Quantitative geography is a subfield and methodological approach to geography that develops, tests, and uses scientific, mathematical, and statistical methods to analyze and model geographic phenomena and patterns. It aims to explain and predict the distribution and dynamics of human and physical geography through the collection and analysis of quantifiable data. The approach quantitative geographers take is generally in line with the scientific method, where a falsifiable hypothesis is generated, and then tested through observational studies. This has received criticism, and in recent years, quantitative geography has moved to include systematic model creation and understanding the limits of their models. This approach is used to study a wide range of topics, including population demographics, urbanization, environmental patterns, and the spatial distribution of economic activity. The methods of quantitative geography are often contrasted by those employed by qualitative geography, which is more focused on observing and recording characteristics of geographic place. However, there is increasing interest in using combinations of both qualitative and quantitative methods through mixed-methods research to better understand and contextualize geographic phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CrimeStat</span>

CrimeStat is a crime mapping software program. CrimeStat is Windows-based program that conducts spatial and statistical analysis and is designed to interface with a geographic information system (GIS). The program is developed by Ned Levine & Associates under the direction of Ned Levine, with funding by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), an agency of the United States Department of Justice. The program and manual are distributed for free by NIJ.

Concepts and Techniques in Modern Geography, abbreviated CATMOG, is a series of 59 short publications, each focused on an individual method or theory in geography.

Technical geography is the branch of geography that involves using, studying, and creating tools to obtain, analyze, interpret, understand, and communicate spatial information. The other branches, most commonly limited to human geography and physical geography, can usually apply the concepts and techniques of technical geography. However, the methods and theory are distinct, and a technical geographer may be more concerned with the technological and theoretical concepts than the nature of the data. Further, a technical geographer may explore the relationship between the spatial technology and the end users to improve upon the technology and better understand the impact of the technology on human behavior. Thus, the spatial data types a technical geographer employs may vary widely, including human and physical geography topics, with the common thread being the techniques and philosophies employed. To accomplish this, technical geographers often create their own software or scripts, which can then be applied more broadly by others. They may also explore applying techniques developed for one application to another unrelated topic, such as applying Kriging, originally developed for mining, to disciplines as diverse as real-estate prices. In teaching technical geography, instructors often need to fall back on examples from human and physical geography to explain the theoretical concepts. While technical geography mostly works with quantitative data, the techniques and technology can be applied to qualitative geography, differentiating it from quantitative geography. Within the branch of technical geography are the major and overlapping subbranches of geographic information science, geomatics, and geoinformatics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spatial neural network</span> Category of tailored neural networks

Spatial neural networks (SNNs) constitute a supercategory of tailored neural networks (NNs) for representing and predicting geographic phenomena. They generally improve both the statistical accuracy and reliability of the a-spatial/classic NNs whenever they handle geo-spatial datasets, and also of the other spatial (statistical) models whenever the geo-spatial datasets' variables depict non-linear relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qualitative geography</span> Subfield of geographic methods

Qualitative geography is a subfield and methodological approach to geography focusing on nominal data, descriptive information, and the subjective and interpretive aspects of how humans experience and perceive the world. Often, it is concerned with understanding the lived experiences of individuals and groups and the social, cultural, and political contexts in which those experiences occur. Thus, qualitative geography is traditionally placed under the branch of human geography; however, technical geographers are increasingly directing their methods toward interpreting, visualizing, and understanding qualitative datasets, and physical geographers employ nominal qualitative data as well as quanitative. Furthermore, there is increased interest in applying approaches and methods that are generally viewed as more qualitative in nature to physical geography, such as in critical physical geography. While qualitative geography is often viewed as the opposite of quantitative geography, the two sets of techniques are increasingly used to complement each other. Qualitative research can be employed in the scientific process to start the observation process, determine variables to include in research, validate results, and contextualize the results of quantitative research through mixed-methods approaches.

Arthur Getis was an American geographer known for his significant contributions to spatial statistics and geographic information science (GIScience). With a career spanning over four decades, Getis authored more than one hundred peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, greatly influencing GIScience and geography as a whole. The Getis-Ord family of statistics, one of the most commonly used in spatial analysis, is based on his and J. Keith Ord's work and is still widely used in the creation of hot spot maps.

The Scientific Geography Series is a series of small books that each focus on a specific geographic concept from a scientific framework.

Duane Francis Marble was an American geographer known for his significant contributions to quantitative geography and geographic information science (GIScience). Marble had a 40-year career as a professor at multiple institutions, retiring from the Ohio State University and holding a courtesy appointment as Professor of Geosciences at Oregon State University afterward. His early work was highly influential in computer cartography and is regarded as a significant contributor to the quantitative revolution in geography. His work on constructing a "Model Curricula" in GIScience is listed as the starting foundation built upon by the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge.

References

  1. 1 2 "Alexander Stewart Fotheringham – Biography". The Academy of Europe. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Stewart Fotheringham". Arizona State University. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 "Stewart Fotheringham". Arizona State University: Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 "2019 AAG Distinguished Scholarship Honors". American Association of Geographers. 4 December 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Fotheringham, A. Stewart; Brunsdon, Chris; Charlton, Martin (2002). Geographically Weighted Regression: the analysis of spatially varying relationships. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   0-471-49616-2.
  6. "Stewart Fotheringham". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 Fotheringham, A. Stewart; Oshan, Taylor M.; Li, Ziqi (2023). Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression: Theory and Practice (1 ed.). doi:10.1201/9781003435464. ISBN   9781003435464. S2CID   262209577 . Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Alexander Stewart Fotheringham". Academia Europaea. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  9. 1 2 "Mapping Science Committee". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  10. Martin, Megan (15 February 2017). "Fotheringham selected for National Academy of Sciences committee on mapping science". ASU News. Arizona State University. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  11. "How Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) works". ArcGIS Pro. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  12. 1 2 Mitchell, Andy (2009). The ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 2. Esri Press. ISBN   978-1-58948-116-9.
  13. Páez, A.; Wheeler, D.C. "Geographically Weighted Regression". International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  14. "Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) (Spatial Statistics)". ArcGIS Pro. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  15. Bivand, Roger. "Geographically Weighted Regression". Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  16. Xiangyang, Song; Jiawei, Gao. "GWR(Processing)". QGIS Python Plugins Repository. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Fotheringham, A. Stewart; Crespo, Ricardo; Yao, Jing (9 March 2015). "Geographical and Temporal Weighted Regression (GTWR)" (PDF). Geographic Analysis. 47 (4): 431–452. Bibcode:2015GeoAn..47..431F. doi:10.1111/gean.12071.
  18. Lu, Binbin; Hu, Yigong; Yang, Dongyang; Liu, Yong; Liao, Liuqi; Yin, Zuoyao; Xia, Tianyang; Dong, Zheyi; Harris, Paul; Brunsdon, Chris; Comber, Lex; Dong, Guanpeng (February 2023). "GWmodelS: A software for geographically weighted models". SoftwareX. 21. Bibcode:2023SoftX..2101291L. doi: 10.1016/j.softx.2022.101291 .
  19. 1 2 3 "Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) (Spatial Statistics)". ArcGIS Pro. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  20. Oshan, T. M.; Kang, Li, Z.; Wolf, W.; Fotheringham, Alexander Stewart (2019). "mgwr: A Python implementation of multiscale geographically weighted regression for investigating process spatial heterogeneity and scale". ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information . 8 (6): 269. Bibcode:2019IJGI....8..269O. doi: 10.3390/ijgi8060269 . hdl: 1903/31409 .{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. "Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR)". GitHub. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  22. "Webinars & Workshops". University Consortium for Geographic Information Science. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  23. "The AAG Fellows". American Association of Geographers. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  24. Gatrell, A C; Bracken, I J (1985). "Reviews: Central Place Theory, Gravity and Spatial Interaction Models, Industrial Location, Scientific Geography Series, Computer-Assisted Cartography: Principles and Prospects". Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. 12 (4): 493–496. Bibcode:1985EnPlB..12..493G. doi:10.1068/b120493. S2CID   131269013.
  25. Healey, Michael (1986). "Book reviews: Scientific geography series, Central Place Theory, Gravity and Interaction models, Industrial Location". Applied Geography. 6: 275–277. doi:10.1016/0143-6228(86)90009-3.
  26. Wrigley, N (1985). "Review: Central Place Theory, Gravity and Spatial Interaction Models, Industrial Location, Scientific Geography Series". Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. 17 (10): 1415–1428. doi:10.1068/a171415.
  27. Rigby, Jan (2001). "Reviews: Quantitative Geography: Perspectives on Spatial Data Analysis". Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design. 28 (6): 933–944. doi:10.1068/b2806rvw.
  28. O'Sullivan, David (2003). "Book Review: Geographically Weighted Regression: The Analysis of Spatially Varying Relationships". Geographical Analysis. 35 (3): 272–275. doi:10.1353/geo.2003.0008.
  29. Miller, Jennifer A. (2009). "A Review of "The Handbook of Geographic Information Science"". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 99 (3): 637–639. doi:10.1080/00045600902978927.