首先回顾了当前商业GIS软件包已有的空间分析能力，以及GIS所服务的地球科学对空间分析的需求，然后以典型案例剖析了当前独立的空间分析商业软件包具有的空间分析功能，据此，探讨了GIS数据分析新增能力的内容和设计策略。

Various spatial analysis problems exist in many scientific fields such as geology, geophysics, oceanography, agriculture, ecology, environmental science, geography, sociology, politics, anthropology among others. So far, commercial GIS software provided only very simple analytic functions of overlay and classic statistics, which are far from being sufficient. However, many spatial analysis software packages were developed independently. Compared to the 500-years development history of modern mathematics, the mathematical theoretic foundations of spatial analysis have been developed for just 20～30 years. It is still in very preliminary stage and far from being mature.In this paper, after a brief review of the spatial analysis functions in existing GIS software and the need of spatial analysis functions of geoscience, a comparative study was conducted between two typical spatial analysis packages. Based on these, the further development of spatial analysis functions is explored in both contents and strategies. We conclude that for a short-term objective, the existing spatial analysis packages can be integrated with the GIS in different level based on the practical need. However, for a long-term consideration, a mathematical framework of spatial analysis needs to be developed.