2.4. Spatial autocorrelation analyses
Spatial autocorrelation refers to the correlation of the same variable
in different space position, to measure the cluster degree of spatial unit
property value (Huang et al., 2014; Li et al., 2014; Zhao et al., 2014).
Moran's I is a commonly used indicator of spatial auto-association. Global
Moran's I is used to study the overall spatial autocorrelation, while the
Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) measures the degree of
spatial autocorrelation in each specific location by using local Moran's
I. The latter is also useful to identify local spatial cluster patterns and
spatial outliers. Local Moran's I index can be expressed as: