The Spatial Analysis Laboratory (SAL) in the Department of Geography at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign is a research unit devoted to the development, implementation and application of state-of-the-art methods of spatial analysis to policy issues in the social and environmental sciences. Activities span the range from the creation of new methods for exploratory data analysis and spatial econometrics to the implementation of these techniques in the form of software tools and instructional materials to the facilitation of a larger spatial analysis user community. Applications deal with research questions in a range of fields, including regional science, economic geography, environmental economics, criminology, public health, and other social and natural sciences.

SAL is directed by Dr. Luc Anselin and consists of an international team of spatial analysis researchers and software engineers. The mission of SAL is to increase the knowledge and use of spatial analysis techniques, and enable researchers to avoid problems related to relying on non-spatial methods in research areas where space matters.

Current projects are funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute,  and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

SAL is the home of the GeoDa software for spatial data analysis, the Software Tools Development Project of the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS), and the site of the R-Geo initiative.

Spatial Analysis Laboratory
Department of Geography
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Davenport Hall, Room 333, MC-150
607 South Mathews Ave
Urbana, IL 61801-3671

Coordinates: 40.107905,  -88.225678

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