Hierarchical Modeling and Analysis for Spatial Data

Reviews / Votes

"This new edition of a well-known and highly regarded work by Banerjee, Gelfand and Carlin cements the book's reputation as a comprehensive and authoritative account of statistical theory and methods for the analysis of spatially referenced data. It updates and expands the material in earlier editions, whilst a linked GitHub repository provides code and data for many of the methods described in the book itself. In addition to detailed coverage of the three core sub-areas of spatial data structure (point-referenced, areal and point pattern), the book includes a number of more recent methodological developments covering multivariate, spatio-temporal and other, more specialised topics. The authors work within the Bayesian inferential framework, but this need not put off non-Bayesian readers, as almost all of the material can be re-cast in a purely likelihood-based framework incorporating random effects in the model specification."
~Peter Diggle, Lancaster University, UK

"This book has already become a classic, that deserves a position in the library of anybody interested in spatial statistics. The previous editions were received with plenty of enthusiasm by the scientific community and so should this edition. The book became a franchise that keeps flourishing roughly once at every decade. The authors are top top-tier researchers in the field and the amount and variety of material that they cover at each edition astonishes. If the growth from the 2nd to the 1st edition was about 20%, the growth from 3rd to 2nd editions was about 25%, to a staggering 699 pages document full of content. If this trend is retained we can hope for a 30% larger 4th edition, hopefully in less than a decade from now. If I could suggest one topic for that edition it would be exact inference for point processes. The book will probably become an encyclopedia by then. It is already a landmark and primary source of information in the area of (Bayesian) spatial statistics."
~Dani Gamerman, Emeritus Professor, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

"I was thrilled to see this third edition of Hierarchical Modeling and Analysis for Spatial Data. The previous two editions have set the standard for a modern book on spatial statistics, and the authors have done a masterful job of updating this classic. I am often asked for my recommendation for a reference on spatial statistics, or for the best textbook to use in a graduate-level course on the subject. My first reaction is Banerjee et al.! Although I have some other favorites for certain topics, this book has the breadth of coverage and is written at the right level for those with some graduate training in statistics, with enough code to implement the methods on one's own data. The book keeps getting bigger and better! The third edition has added two excellent chapters on spatial point processes, as well as some other important material for modern spatial analysis (large datasets, extremes, spatial quantile regression, and spatial functional models, to name a few). The authors have also sensibly moved the code examples to a GitHub repository. Given the pace at which software changes in this area, it was a great decision to decouple the code from the text, allowing more frequent code updates. All-in-all, this is a masterful revision, and I definitely recommend that owners of the 2nd edition upgrade as soon as possible. I congratulate the authors on their hard work with this fantastic revision. Going forward, when asked for a recommendation of a book/text for spatial statistics, I will continue to say, without hesitation - Banerjee et al. (third edition)!"
~Chris Wikle, University of Missouri

"I have kept Hierarchical Modeling and Analysis for Spatial Data by Banerjee, Carlin, and Gelfand on my bookshelf since its earlier edition. It has been an invaluable resource for both my undergraduate and graduate teaching, as well as a reliable reference in my research whenever I need clarification on specific topics. I have even provided each of my students with a copy of this book. Compared to the second edition, the third edition introduces several new chapters, including Bayesian analysis of point pattern models and spatial data fusion. In addition, each chapter has been updated to reflect cutting-edge developments in the field, particularly advances in handling large spatial and spatio-temporal datasets. Overall, the addition of approximately 20% new material makes the third edition a more comprehensive and authoritative resource on the theory, methods, applications, and computation of spatial statistics. The inclusion of software and data examples through the accompanying GitHub repository further enhances its value, making it an excellent textbook as well as a resource for self-study."
~Bo Li, Washington University in St Louis, USA