Indicators of spatial association are statistics that evaluate the existence of clusters in the spatial arrangement of a given variable.
For instance, if we are studying cancer rates among census tracts in a given city local clusters in the rates mean that there are areas that have higher or lower rates than is to be expected by chance alone; that is, the values occurring are above or below those of a random distribution in space.
Notable global indicators of spatial association include:[1] Notable local indicators of spatial association (LISA) include:[1]