ABSTRACT
This chapter defines two frequently-occurring types of spatial data that are featured in this book: areal data, for which the data sites are nonoverlapping contiguous subregions in a spatial domain, and geostatistical data, for which the subregions are not contiguous and are so small relative to the space between them that they can reasonably be regarded as points. Four spatial data sets, two of each type, are introduced, which are studied and analyzed statistically throughout the book. These are data on wet sulfate deposition, harbor seal abundance, caribou forage quality, and heavy metal concentrations in mosses near a mine. The spatial linear model is also introduced and distinguished from other linear models by having a covariance structure that depends on the spatial locations of the data.
