It is one object of the present invention to perform regional optimization while
taking spatial continuity into account, and to provide higher-level spatial data mining.
[Constitution]
A region calculation method for introducing a two-dimensional association rule,
extracted from a database, that includes spatial information, such as addresses,
and for applying the two-dimensional association rule for a map, comprises the
steps of: defining an objective function that is used to introduce the two-dimensional
association rule and that does not include regional information for which an output
request has been submitted; dividing a region on the map into pixel grids having
a predetermined size to form buckets (S101); aggregating data available
in the database for each bucket (S103); employing the objective function
to calculate a region for the optimization of the objective function (S104);
extracting entities, appearing on the map, that correspond to the obtained region
(S106); and employing the extracted entities to output a region that is
applied for the map.