Spatial Analysis has sought its paramount importance over the last few years, which has further facilitated the planners, urban designers, geographers, and sociologists to solve a series of physical and spatial issues in the domain of infrastructure and facilities planning in a more scientific and analytical way. Starting from identifying a housing location to a locational selection for a solid waste disposal ground; airport location to a multispecialty hospital; location for setting up a school to a multimodal transport hub; in each and every such decision-making, spatial demand and spatial planning takes an anchor role for the successful and optimal utilization of the design and developed facilities. In the past, many such decisions were only sought through subjective judgments and a qualitative approach that failed to capture the locational advantage and disadvantages leading to the underutilization of the designed facility compared to its intended usage. However, the ever-evolving spectrum of scientific research has added another dimension in terms of quantitative tools and techniques to spatial research and changed the approach of such multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) more scientifically and rationally. During the last few years, the computational facilities and ability have loomed large to deal with Big Data and are perceived and used extensively in diverse fields to solve real-time problems. Recently, the integrated approach of MCDM spatial analysis and GIS (geographic information system) has been adopted in various research and projects to solve location choice and resource optimization issues at urban, rural, and regional levels. Quantitative Methods and Applications of GIS incorporate GIS, spatial analysis, and quantitative strategies to resolve different issues in social studies and public utility planning. Methods range from regression analysis to linear programming; ranking to design of experiment; fuzzy scaling to econometric modelling; system dynamics to virtual simulation. The application of such quantitative techniques would undoubtedly help the decision-maker to solve problems related to urban and regional analysis, accessibility measures, analysis of regional growth patterns, land use simulation, health care analyses, and many more. Both observation and participatory data collection are used in such quantitative approaches. This proposed theme of the session aims to attract researchers across the globe working on such quantitative tools and techniques and use the same for spatial analysis to resolve issues on urban, rural, and regional scales.
