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Table of Contents | Background
& Objective | Contributors
Spatially Integrated Social Science: Chapter 3
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Geovisualization
of Human Activity Patterns Using 3D GIS: A Time-Geographic
Approach
Mei-Po Kwan and
Jiyeong Lee
Abstract
The study of human activities and movements in space and time
has long been an important research area in social science.
One of the earliest spatially integrated perspective for the
analysis of human activities patterns and movement in space-time
is time-geography. Despite the usefulness of time-geography,
there are very few studies that actually implemented its constructs
because of a lack of detailed individual-level data and analytical
tools. With the increasing availability of georeferenced individual-level
data and improvement in the representational and geocomputational
capabilities of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), the
operationalization of time-geographic constructs has become
more feasible recently. This chapter illustrates the value
of time-geographic methods in the description and analysis
of human activity patterns using GIS-based three-dimensional
(3D) geovisualization methods. These methods are used to study
gender/ethnic differences in space-time activity patterns
using an activity diary data set collected in the Portland
(Oregon) metropolitan area. The study shows that geovisualization
methods are not only effective in revealing the complex interaction
between the spatial and temporal dimensions in structuring
human spatial behavior. They are also effective tools for
exploratory spatial data analysis that can help the formulation
of more realistic computational or behavioral models.
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