Geographic representation in spatial analysis

Spatial analysis mostly developed in an era when data was scarce and computational power was expensive. Consequently, traditional spatial analysis greatly simplifies its representations of geography. The rise of geographic information science (GISci) and the changing nature of scientific questions at the end of the 20th century suggest a comprehensive re-examination of geographic representation in spatial analysis. This paper reviews the potential for improved representations of geography in spatial analysis. Existing tools in spatial analysis and new tools available from GISci have tremendous potential for bringing more sophisticated representations of geography to the forefront of spatial analysis theory and application.