Book excerpt: Spatial Data Analysis: Theory and Practice, first published in 2003, provides a broad ranging treatment of the field of spatial data analysis. It begins with an overview of spatial data analysis and the importance of location (place, context and space) in scientific and policy related research. Covering fundamental problems concerning how attributes in geographical space are represented to the latest methods of exploratory spatial data analysis and spatial modeling, it is designed to take the reader through the key areas that underpin the analysis of spatial data, providing a platform from which to view and critically appreciate many of the key areas of the field. Parts of the text are accessible to undergraduate and master's level students, but it also contains sufficient challenging material that it will be of interest to geographers, social and economic scientists, environmental scientists and statisticians, whose research takes them into the area of spatial analysis.