Multiple Spatio-Temporal Cluster Detection for Case Event Data: An Ordering-Based Approach

This article introduces a spatio-temporal distance which allows the extension of the spatial cluster detection methods of Demattei et al. (2007 Demattei , C. , Molinari , N. , Daures , J. P. ( 2007 ). Arbitrarily shaped multiple spatial cluster detection for case event data . Computat. Statist. Data Anal. 51 ( 8 ): 3931 – 3945 . Google Scholar]) and Cucala (2009 Cucala , L. ( 2009 ). A flexible spatial scan test for case event data . Computat. Statist. Data Anal. 53 ( 8 ): 2843 – 2850 .Crossref], Web of Science ®] , Google Scholar]). A review of these methods is given before we define a spatio-temporal distance. Then this distance is used for detecting spatio-temporal clusters. These ordering-based methods are compared to the scan statistic by a simulation study. The scan procedure is more powerful but it detects fewer true positives due to its lack of flexibility. Those techniques are applied to a seismic data set. This article highlights two advantages of the ordering-based methods: their flexibility and their low computational demand.