The Symbiotic Role of GIS in Economics: The Spatial Economic Approach

Abstract

The object of this paper is what is termed the spatial economic approach (SEA), which is considered to be based on the fundamental principle that economic systems they have never been developed, cannot exist and seldom are applied (e.g., administering businesses) independent of Geographic Space. As a result, the conjunction of data science and spatial data science represents the spatial economic approach, which however require techniques to achieve its goals. The most successful of the new techniques are the Geographic information Science software and tools that can be used to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, and visualize both spatial and nonspatial data. The important aspects of the role and contribution of GIS is a fundamental factor of SEA and is presented to justify the position of this paper that the spatial economic approach by utilizing GIS should become the principal approach in economic studies.