Measuring the Spatial Pattern of Ethnic Groups in San Antonio's Eastside: A Spatial Analysis Approach with the Colocation Quotient

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe study of cities has evolved and shifted paradigms from the early local resources viewpoint, to the morphology perspective, and to the more recent spatial approach. Through these different angles, urban geographers and sociologists have documented the different factors that lead to the formation of unique urban residential patterns. This article focuses on measuring the spatial pattern of ethnic groups residing in the Eastside neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, in the early 1900s. The goal is to use a replicable abstract approach that will create a baseline for the comparison of current and future patterns, and provide greater understanding of the origins of residential segregation in the City of San Antonio. A historical geodatabase was created by digitizing and georeferencing buildings, blocks, and streets using Sanborn maps from 1911 and 1912, and by linking the digitized shapefiles with 1910 city directory and census data. The data were analyzed to identify and test spatial associations among different ethnic groups using the colocation quotient. This point-based metric examines the overall spatial structure of the data set and highlights the bivariate spatial association between different ethnic groups. The colocation quotient quantifies both hierarchical processes to provide an in-depth analysis of residential segregation on San Antonio's East side.