Local Moran's I vs. Gi*

[PhilipGibbons]

Hi folks,

I am conducting a hot spot analysis and am trying to figure out if Local Moran's I and Gi* can be used in the same analysis?  Both statistics indicate spatial association of neighbors.  In particular, I am stuck on whether the COType produced from the Cluster/Outlier tool (high values surrounded by other high values) are similar to the results of the HotSpot Analysis tool where a statistically significant positive Z-Score indicates spatial clustering of high values.  My analysis using these two statistics comes up with slightly different results.  Should these statistics be used separately?

Thanks!

-Phil

[LaurenRosenshein]

Hi Phil,

I answered some of this question here: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/31142-Differences-between-Local-Spatial-Statistics-Results. 

The other part of your question is if these different analyzes should be used separately.  My answer would be that they are getting at slightly different questions, so it may be useful to use them both.  There is no reason that they cannot both be used in the same analysis since they both provide complementary insight into the questions that you're asking.  Alternatively, you can just use the one that proves your point or provides evidence for your hypothesis...but trying them both can't hurt.

Hope this helps.

Lauren Rosenshein
Geoprocessing Product Engineer