Introduction
Let's consider an imaginary scenario: a new disease has begun spreading through numerous communities in the country that you live in and the government is trying to figure out how to confront this health emergency. Critical to any plan to confront this health emergency is epidemiological knowledge, including where the patients are located and how the disease is moving. The ability to locate and quantify problem areas (which are classically referred to as hotspots) can help health professionals, policy makers, and emergency response teams craft the most effective and efficient strategies for combating the disease. This scenario highlights one of the many applications of hotspot modeling.
Hotspot modeling is an approach that is used to identify how a population is distributed across a geographical area; for example, how the population of individuals infected with the previously mentioned disease is spread across the country. The creation of this distribution relies on the availability...