ABSTRACT
By simplifying the measurement of spatial relationships, geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) technologies are changing the ways in which researchers describe, visualize and model the use of land resources. Coupled with advances in data collection and management, computing and statistics, GIS and RS technologies are stimulating innovative treatments of space in applied land use research. Researchers have long recognized the relevance of space to the study of land use issues (e.g., Alonso 1964; Anas 1987; Hotelling 1929; von Thunen 1826). However, descriptive and statistical analyses of the spatial aspects of land resources were constrained historically by a lack of spatial data and analysis tools. 1 Prior to these recent technological developments, the measurement of spatial relationships such as proximity and adjacency, the representation of spatial regions such as neighborhoods and landscapes, and the evaluation of spatial networks such as road and river systems, which are easily measured using current tools, were difficult tasks.
