ABSTRACT
Openshaw (1994) argues that as the amount of data that is collected as a result of the GIS revolution increases, geographers must start to apply new methods to these new data riches. It is no longer enough to merely catalogue the data and draw simple maps of it. It is also no longer acceptable to use crude statistical measures that average over a whole map or region and in so doing throw away the geographical content of the data. In other words, geographers must generalise or drown in the flood of spatial data that has increased many fold during the 1980s and 1990s and which will continue to grow into the next century. As the amount of data grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for humans to find the time to study and interpret the data; the only solution is to pass more of the routine analysis to computers leaving the researcher with more time to study the truly interesting parts of the output.
