Mining Complex Spatial Patterns: Issues and Techniques

Spatial data mining is the quantitative study of phenomena that are located in space. This paper investigates methods of mining patterns of a complex spatial data set (which generally describes any kind of data where the location in space of object holds importance). We based this research on the analysis of some spatial characteristics of certain objects. We began with describing the spatial pattern of events or objects with respect to their attributes; we looked at how to describe the spatial nature/characteristics of entities in an environment with respect to their spatial and non-spatial attributes. We also looked at modelling (predictive modelling/knowledge management of complex spatial systems), querying and implementing a complex spatial database (using data structure and algorithms). Critically speaking, the presence of spatial auto-correlation and the fact that continuous data types are always present in spatial data makes it important to create methods, tools and algorithms to mine spatial patterns in a complex spatial data set. This work is particularly useful to researchers in the field of data mining as it contributes a whole lot of knowledge to different application areas of data mining especially spatial data mining. It can also be useful in teaching and likewise for other study purposes.