STARS: Space-Time Analysis of Regional Systems

Space-Time Analysis of Regional Systems (STARS) is an open-source package designed for the dynamic exploratory analysis of data measured for areal units at multiple points in time. STARS consists of four core analytical modules: Anselin (1995) exploratory spatial data analysis; Anselin (2003) inequality measures; Carlino and Mills (1993) mobility metrics; and Christakos, Bogaert, and Serre (2001) spatial Markov. Developed using the Python object-oriented scripting language, STARS lends itself to three main modes of use. Within the context of a command line interface (CLI), STARS can be treated as a package which can be called from within customized scripts for batch-oriented analyses and simulation. Alternatively, a graphical user interface (GUI) integrates most of the analytical modules with a series of dynamic graphical views containing brushing and linking functionality to support interactive exploration of the spatial, temporal, and distributional dimensions of socioeconomic and physical processes. Finally, the GUI and CLI modes can be combined for use from the Python shell to facilitate interactive programming and access to the many libraries contained within Python. This article provides an overview of the design of STARS, its implementation, functionality, and future plans. A selection of its analytical capabilities are also illustrated that highlight the power and flexibility of the package.