Discussion of "modern statistics of spatial point processes"

The paper ‘Modern statistics for spatial point processes' by Jesper Møller and Rasmus P. Waagepetersen is based on a special invited lecture given by the authors at the 21st Nordic Conference on Mathematical Statistics, held at Rebild, Denmark, in June 2006. At the conference, Antti Penttinen and Eva B. Vedel Jensen were invited to discuss the paper. We here present the comments from the two invited discussants and from a number of other scholars, as well as the authors' responses to these comments. Below Figure 1, Figure 2, etc., refer to figures in the paper under discussion, while Figure A, Figure B, etc., refer to figures in the current discussion. All numbered sections and formulas ref…

Joint second-order parameter estimation for spatio-temporal log-Gaussian Cox processes

We propose a new fitting method to estimate the set of second-order parameters for the class of homogeneous spatio-temporal log-Gaussian Cox point processes. With simulations, we show that the proposed minimum contrast procedure, based on the spatio-temporal pair correlation function, provides reliable estimates and we compare the results with the current available methods. Moreover, the proposed method can be used in the case of both separable and non-separable parametric specifications of the correlation function of the underlying Gaussian Random Field. We describe earthquake sequences comparing several Cox model specifications.

Testing for local structure in spatiotemporal point pattern data

The detection of clustering structure in a point pattern is one of the main focuses of attention in spatiotemporal data mining. Indeed, statistical tools for clustering detection and identification of individual events belonging to clusters are welcome in epidemiology and seismology. Local second-order characteristics provide information on how an event relates to nearby events. In this work, we extend local indicators of spatial association (known as LISA functions) to the spatiotemporal context (which will be then called LISTA functions). These functions are then used to build local tests of clustering to analyse differences in local spatiotemporal structures. We present a simulation stud…

Some properties and applications of local second-order characteristics for spatio-temporal point processes on networks

Point processes on linear networks are increasingly being considered to analyse events occurring on particular network-based structures. In this work, we extend Local Indicators of Spatio-Temporal Association (LISTA) functions to the non-Euclidean space of linear networks, allowing to obtain information on how events relate to nearby events. In particular, we propose the local version of two inhomogeneous second-order statistics for spatio-temporal point processes on linear networks, the K- and the pair correlation functions. We also show that these LISTA functions are useful for diagnostics of models specified on the networks, and can be helpful to assess the goodness-of-fit of different s…

Inhomogeneous spatio-temporal point processes on linear networks for visitors’ stops data

We analyse the spatio-temporal distribution of visitors' stops by touristic attractions in Palermo (Italy) using theory of stochastic point processes living on linear networks. We first propose an inhomogeneous Poisson point process model, with a separable parametric spatio-temporal first-order intensity. We account for the spatial interaction among points on the given network, fitting a Gibbs point process model with mixed effects for the purely spatial component. This allows us to study first-order and second-order properties of the point pattern, accounting both for the spatio-temporal clustering and interaction and for the spatio-temporal scale at which they operate. Due to the strong d…

The 1970 US Draft Lottery Revisited: A Spatial Analysis

Summary We revise the result of the 1970 selective service draft lottery in the USA following an open question that was suggested by Fienberg in a paper published in Science in 1971. The result of the drawings can be viewed as a particular spatial pattern which can be analysed by using general spatial tools adapted to our context. Approaches for assessing the complete spatial randomness for this spatial process on a finite support are proposed. More specifically, these approaches involve the number of events in a square window and a k(r)-based function used to analyse stationary spatial point processes.

Local indicators of spatio-temporal association on linear networks

In this work, we extend the Local Indicators of Spatio-Temporal Association (LISTA) functions (Siino et al. 2018) to the non-Euclidean space of linear networks. We introduce the local version of some inhomogeneous second-order statistics for spatio-temporal point processes on linear networks (Morandi and Mateu, 2019), namely the K-function and the pair correlation function. Following the work of Adelfio et al. (2019) for the Euclidean case, we employ the proposed LISTA functions to assess the goodness-of-fit of different spatio-temporal models fitted to point patterns occurring on linear networks. Indeed, the peculiar lack of homogeneity in a network discourages the usage of traditional spa…

The spatial pattern of a forest ecosystem

Abstract Statistical analysis of stands of trees as a whole need suitable methods of spatial statistics. Obviously, trees within a stand affect development and survival of their neighbours. They interact and therefore have to be considered as a system of dependent random variates from an unknown stochastic process. One such statistical model which considers the spatial dependence among trees in a forest and their characteristics is a marked point process. The `points', called events in spatial statistics, are the tree positions and the `marks' are tree characteristics such as crown lengths or tree species. A minimal prerequisite for any serious attempt to model an observed pattern is to tes…

Local characteristics of functional marked point processes with applications to seismic data

We present a family of local inhomogeneous mark-weighted summary statistics for general marked point processes. These capture various types of local dependence structures depending on the specified involved weight function. We use them to propose a local random labeling test. This procedure enables us to identify points and thus regions where the random labeling assumption does not hold, for example, when the (functional) marks are spatially dependent. We further present an application to a seismic point pattern with functional marks provided by seismic waveforms. Indeed, despite the relatively long history of point process theory, few approaches to analyzing spatial point patterns where th…

Spatio-temporal small area surveillance of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The emergence of COVID-19 requires new effective tools for epidemiological surveillance. Spatio-temporal disease mapping models, which allow dealing with small units of analysis, are a priority in this context. These models provide geographically detailed and temporally updated overviews of the current state of the pandemic, making public health interventions more effective. These models also allow estimating epidemiological indicators highly demanded for COVID-19 surveillance, such as the instantaneous reproduction number R t , even for small areas. In this paper, we propose a new spatio-temporal spline model particularly suited for COVID-19 surveillance, which allows estimating a…

Model comparison and selection for stationary space–time models

An intensive simulation study to compare the spatio-temporal prediction performances among various space-time models is presented. The models having separable spatio-temporal covariance functions and nonseparable ones, under various scenarios, are also considered. The computational performance among the various selected models are compared. The issue of how to select an appropriate space-time model by accounting for the tradeoff between goodness-of-fit and model complexity is addressed. Performances of the two commonly used model-selection criteria, Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion are examined. Furthermore, a practical application based on the statistical ana…

Weighted local second-order statistics for complex spatio-temporal point processes

Spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal point processes, and in particular Poisson processes, are stochastic processes that are largely used to describe and model the distribution of a wealth of real phenomena. When a model is fitted to a set of random points, observed in a given multidimensional space, diagnostic measures are necessary to assess the goodness-of-fit and to evaluate the ability of that model to describe the random point pattern behaviour. The main problem when dealing with residual analysis for point processes is to find a correct definition of residuals. Diagnostics of goodness-of-fit in the theory of point processes are often considered through the transformation of data in…

Modeling accident risk at the road level through zero-inflated negative binomial models: A case study of multiple road networks

Abstract This paper presents a case study carried out in multiple cities of the Valencian Community (Spain) to determine the effect of sociodemographic and road characteristics on traffic accident risk. The analyzes are performed at the road segment level, considering the linear network representing the road structure of each city as a spatial lattice. The number of accidents observed in each road segment from 2010 to 2019 is taken as the response variable, and a zero-inflated modeling approach is considered. Count overdispersion and spatial dependence are also accounted for. Despite the complexity and sparsity of the data, the fitted models performed considerably well, with few exceptions.…

Identifying crime generators and spatially overlapping high-risk areas through a nonlinear model: A comparison between three cities of the Valencian region (Spain)

The behavior and spatial distribution of crime events can be explained through the characterization of an area in terms of its demography, socioeconomy, and built environment. In particular, recent studies on the incidence of crime in a city have focused on the identification of features of the built environment (specific places or facilities) that may increase crime risk within a certain radius. However, it is hard to identify environmental characteristics that consistently explain crime occurrence across cities and crime types. This article focuses on the assessment of the effect that certain types of places have on the incidence of property crime, robbery, and vandalism in three cities o…

Local Spatio-Temporal Log-Gaussian Cox Processes for seismic data analysis

We propose a local version of the spatio-temporal log-Gaussian Cox processes (LGCPs) employing the Local Indicators of Spatio-Temporal Association (LISTA) functions into the minimum contrast procedure to obtain space as well as time-varying parameters. We resort to the joint minimum contrast method fitting method to estimate the set of second-order parameters for the class of Spatio-Temporal LGCPs. We employ the proposed methodology to analyse real seismic data occurred Greece between 2004 and 2015.

Spatio-temporal stochastic modelling: environmental and health processes

Guest editorial

Spatial pattern analysis using hybrid models: an application to the Hellenic seismicity

Earthquakes are one of the most destructive natural disasters and the spatial distribution of their epi- centres generally shows diverse interaction structures at different spatial scales. In this paper, we use a multi-scale point pattern model to describe the main seismicity in the Hellenic area over the last 10 years. We analyze the interaction between events and the relationship with geo- logical information of the study area, using hybrid models as proposed by Baddeley et al. ( 2013 ). In our analysis, we find two competing suitable hybrid models, one with a full parametric structure and the other one based on nonpara- metric kernel estimators for the spatial inhomogeneity.

Some properties of local weighted second-order statistics for spatio-temporal point processes

Diagnostics of goodness-of-fit in the theory of point processes are often considered through the transformation of data into residuals as a result of a thinning or a rescaling procedure. We alternatively consider here second-order statistics coming from weighted measures. Motivated by Adelfio and Schoenberg (Ann Inst Stat Math 61(4):929–948, 2009) for the temporal and spatial cases, we consider an extension to the spatio-temporal context in addition to focussing on local characteristics. In particular, our proposed method assesses goodness-of-fit of spatio-temporal models by using local weighted second-order statistics, computed after weighting the contribution of each observed point by the…

Local inhomogeneous second-order characteristics for spatio-temporal point processes occurring on linear networks

AbstractPoint processes on linear networks are increasingly being considered to analyse events occurring on particular network-based structures. In this paper, we extend Local Indicators of Spatio-Temporal Association (LISTA) functions to the non-Euclidean space of linear networks, allowing to obtain information on how events relate to nearby events. In particular, we propose the local version of two inhomogeneous second-order statistics for spatio-temporal point processes on linear networks, the K- and the pair correlation functions. We put particular emphasis on the local K-functions, deriving come theoretical results which enable us to show that these LISTA functions are useful for diagn…

Classification of spatio-temporal point pattern in the presence of clutter using K-th nearest neighbour distances

In a point process spatio-temporal framework, we consider the problem of features detection in the presence of clutters. We extend the methodology of Byers and Raftery (1998) to the spatio-temporal context by considering the properties of the K-th nearest-neighbour distances. We make use of the spatio-temporal distance based on the Euclidean norm where the temporal term is properly weighted. We show the form of the probability distributions of such K-th nearest-neighbour distance. A mixture distribution, whose parameters are estimated with an EM algorithm, is used to classify points into clutters or features. We assess the performance of the proposed approach with a simulation study, togeth…

Locally weighted minimum contrast estimation for spatio-temporal log-Gaussian Cox processes

A local version of spatio-temporal log-Gaussian Cox processes is proposed by using Local Indicators of Spatio-Temporal Association (LISTA) functions plugged into the minimum contrast procedure, to obtain space as well as time-varying parameters. The new procedure resorts to the joint minimum contrast fitting method to estimate the set of second-order parameters. This approach has the advantage of being suitable in both separable and non-separable parametric specifications of the correlation function of the underlying Gaussian Random Field. Simulation studies to assess the performance of the proposed fitting procedure are presented, and an application to seismic spatio-temporal point pattern…

Spatio-temporal classification in point patterns under the presence of clutter

Local inhomogeneous weighted summary statistics for marked point processes

We introduce a family of local inhomogeneous mark-weighted summary statistics, of order two and higher, for general marked point processes. Depending on how the involved weight function is specified, these summary statistics capture different kinds of local dependence structures. We first derive some basic properties and show how these new statistical tools can be used to construct most existing summary statistics for (marked) point processes. We then propose a local test of random labelling. This procedure allows us to identify points, and consequently regions, where the random labelling assumption does not hold, e.g.~when the (functional) marks are spatially dependent. Through a simulatio…

A comparative analysis of different spatial sampling schemes: Modelling of SSRB data

Low spatial resolution satellite sensors provide information over relatively large targets with typical pixel resolutions of hundreds of km2. However, the spatial scales of ground measurements are usually much smaller. Such differences in spatial scales makes the interpretation of comparisons between quantities derived from low resolution sensors and ground measurements particularly difficult. It also highlights the importance of developing appropriate sampling strategies when designing ground campaigns for validation studies of low resolution sensors. We make use of statistical modelling of high resolution surface shortwave radiation budget (SSRB) data to look into this problem. A spatial …

Self-exciting point process modelling of crimes on linear networks

Although there are recent developments for the analysis of first and second-order characteristics of point processes on networks, there are very few attempts in introducing models for network data. Motivated by the analysis of crime data in Bucaramanga (Colombia), we propose a spatiotemporal Hawkes point process model adapted to events living on linear networks. We first consider a non-parametric modelling strategy, for which we follow a non-parametric estimation of both the background and the triggering components. Then we consider a semi-parametric version, including a parametric estimation of the background based on covariates, and a non-parametric one of the triggering effects. Our mode…

Spatio‐temporal classification in point patterns under the presence of clutter

We consider the problem of detection of features in the presence of clutter for spatio-temporal point patterns. In previous studies, related to the spatial context, Kth nearest-neighbor distances to classify points between clutter and features. In particular, a mixture of distributions whose parameters were estimated using an expectation-maximization algorithm. This paper extends this methodology to the spatio-temporal context by considering the properties of the spatio-temporal Kth nearest-neighbor distances. For this purpose, we make use of a couple of spatio-temporal distances, which are based on the Euclidean and the maximum norms. We show close forms for the probability distributions o…

Assessing local differences between the spatio-temporal second-order structure of two point patterns occurring on the same linear network

Abstract We introduce Local Indicators of Spatio-Temporal Association (LISTA) functions on linear networks and use them to build a statistical test for local second-order structure. This allows to identify differences in the spatio-temporal clustering behaviour of two point patterns, a point pattern of interest and a background one, both occurring on the same linear network. We assess the performance of the testing procedure for local second-order structure through simulation studies under a variety of scenarios that also account for different generating point processes. We show that the proposed local test is able to correctly identify the spatio-temporal difference in the local second-ord…

Detection of cosmic filaments using the Candy model

We propose to apply a marked point process to automatically delineate filaments of the large-scale structure in redshift catalogues. We illustrate the feasibility of the idea on an example of simulated catalogues, describe the procedure, and characterize the results. We find the distribution of the length of the filaments, and suggest how to use this approach to obtain other statistical characteristics of filamentary networks.

Local test of random labelling for functional marked point processes

We introduce the local t-weighted marked nth-order inhomogeneous K-function, in a Functional Marked Point Processes framework. We employ the proposed summary statistics to run a local test of random labelling, useful to identify points, and consequently regions, where this assumption does not hold, i.e. the functional marks are spatially dependent.

Spatio-temporal statistical methods in environmental and biometrical problems

This is the editorial letter for the Special Issue dedicated to the VIII International Workshop on Spatio-temporal Modelling (METMAVIII) which took place in Valencia (Spain) from 1 to 3 June 2016, and to the second Galician-Portuguese meeting of Biometry, with applications to Health Sciences, Ecology and Environmental Sciences (BIOAPP2016) held in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), 30–2 July 2016. This special issue summarises and discusses selected peer-reviewed contributions related to spatial and spatio-temporal statistical methodologies comprising both new methodological approaches and a wide range of applications related to environmental and biometrical problems. Point processes, lattice …

Likelihood Inference for Gibbs Processes in the Analysis of Spatial Point Patterns

Plusieurs auteurs ont propose des approximations stochastiques et non-stochastiques au MLE pour les processus de Gibbs utilises pour decrire les interactions entre deux points dans une distribution spatiale de points. Cettes approximations sont necessaires a cause de la difficulte en l'evaluation de la constante qui normalise la f.d.p., Cet article present une comparaison, parmi d'un model de Strauss, des methodes qui utilisent des approximations directes aux MLE et des methodes qui utilisent techniques de Monte Carlo de chaine de Markov. Les techniques de simulation utilisees sont le Gibbs sampler et l'algorithm de Metropolis-Hastings.

Seismic sequences identification in Italy by local test of random labelling

Spatio-Temporal Linear Network Point Processes for GPS Data Analysis

This work aims at analyzing the spatio-temporal intensity in the distribution of stop locations of cruise passengers during their visit at the destination. Data are collected through the integration of GPS tracking technology and questionnaire-based survey on a sample of cruise passengers visiting the city of Palermo (Italy), and they are used to identify the main determinants which characterize cruise passengers’ stop locations pattern. The spatio-temporal distribution of visitors' stops is analysed by mean of the theory of stochastic point processes occurring on linear networks, in order to consider the street configuration of the city and the location of the main attractions. First, an i…

Hawkes processes on networks for crime data

Motivated by the analysis of crime data in Bucaramanga (Colombia), we propose a spatio-temporal Hawkes point process model adapted to events living on linear networks. We first consider a non-parametric modelling strategy, for both the background and the triggering components, and then we include a parametric estimation of the background based on covariates, and a non-parametric one of the triggering effects. Our network model outperforms a planar version, improving the fitting of the self-exciting point process model.

Modelling residuals dependence in dynamic life tables: A geostatistical approach

The problem of modelling dynamic mortality tables is considered. In this context, the influence of age on data graduation needs to be properly assessed through a dynamic model, as mortality progresses over the years. After detrending the raw data, the residuals dependence structure is analysed, by considering them as a realisation of a homogeneous Gaussian random field defined on R × R. This setting allows for the implementation of geostatistical techniques for the estimation of the dependence and further interpolation in the domain of interest. In particular, a complex form of interaction between age and time is considered, by taking into account a zonally anisotropic component embedded in…

Towards the specification of a self-exciting point process for modelling crimes in Valencia

A number of papers have dealt with the analysis of crime data using self-exciting point process theory after the analogy drawn between aftershock ETAS models and crime rate. With the aim to describe crime events that occurred in Valencia in the last decade, in this paper, we justify the need for a self-exciting point process model through spatial and temporal exploratory analysis.

Spatiotemporal modeling and prediction of solar radiation

[1] The radiation budget in the Earth-atmosphere system is what drives Earth's climate, and thus measurements of this balance are needed to improve our knowledge of Earth's climate and climate change. In the present paper we focus on the analysis of the surface shortwave radiation budget (SSRB), which is the amount of energy in the solar region of the electromagnetic spectrum (0.2–4.0 μm) absorbed at the surface. The SSRB has to be modeled from the surface to the top of the atmosphere, jointly with information about the state of the atmosphere and the surface. These data come from satellites orbiting the Earth and are often missing or disturbed. Its interest is not only at global scales; ra…

Comparing local structures of spatio-temporal point processes on linear networks

We employ the Local Indicators of Spatio-Temporal Association (LISTA) functions on linear networks to build a statistical test for local second-order structure. This allows to identify differences in the spatio-temporal clustering behaviour of two point patterns, a point pattern of interest and a background one, both occurring on the same linear network. We illustrate the proposed methodology analysing a traffic-related problem.

Local Inhomogeneous Weighted Summary Statistics for Marked Point Processes

We introduce a family of local inhomogeneous mark-weighted summary statistics, of order two and higher, for general marked point processes. Depending on how the involved weight function is specified, these summary statistics capture different kinds of local dependence structures. We first derive some basic properties and show how these new statistical tools can be used to construct most existing summary statistics for (marked) point processes. We then propose a local test of random labeling. This procedure allows us to identify points, and consequently regions, where the random labeling assumption does not hold, for example, when the (functional) marks are spatially dependent. Through a sim…