Art Getis and Local Spatial Statistics

Art’s many contributions to the quantitative modeling of spatial processes provide a solid foundation for generations of researchers to come. In this review, we take a roughly chronological path through Art’s published research, starting with his work on spatial point processes, which demonstrated the frequent pattern of inhibition at a very local scale and clustering at a larger scale. In turn, this led to his development of local statistics for detecting hotspots and related inferential procedures. When data are spatially aggregated, the form of dependence is often specified using a weighting matrix and Art developed a flexible framework for specifying the matrix structure. His later research on the spread of infectious diseases was also important in understanding the nature of disease spread. Art’s keen insights and his ability to formulate novel issues are apparent throughout his published works.