Time in GIS

GEOG 288MR, Spring 07, 2-4 credits

Instructor:
Dr. Martin Raubal, raubal@geog.ucsb.edu
Office (hours): Monday 2-4pm, EH 5713
Phone: 893-4839

Class meets: Thursday 1-3pm, EH 5824

Course description:
Many analyses with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) require the integration of a temporal dimension. Examples are natural processes, such as climate dynamics and global warming, and the dynamics of human-environment interaction at urban and regional scales. Such analyses are concerned with the change of spatial patterns through time with the goal of finding cause-and-effect relationships.
Based on a solid philosophical and cognitive foundation of the concepts of space and time, this seminar discusses approaches of representing time and spatio-temporal data in GIS. It further deals with different types of temporal relationships, methods of spatio-temporal analysis in GIS, time geography, and temporal Database Management Systems.
The course will mainly consist of readings, student presentations, and discussions. Each student will be responsible for one session including presentation of the weekly material (and possibly additional material) and lead of discussion. Students are responsible for preparing questions to be discussed in the seminar and writing short commentaries on the weekly readings.

Required reading: The main book for the course is D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York. It is required that students buy their own copy of this book. Additional literature for the course is supplied online by the instructor (through electronic reserve). Weekly readings are listed below. Please come to class prepared to discuss the readings, which are listed for that day.

Grades: Grades will be determined by your presentation and lead of discussion (35%), the written assignments (35%), and your general class participation (30%). Class participation is mandatory.

Written assignments: The written assignments consist of brief critical commentaries (not longer than 1 page each) and your questions connected to the readings. You should have prepared at least 3 questions (possibly related to your own field of study) that can be discussed in the weekly sessions. You must hand in a printed version to the instructor at the beginning of each session. Late assignments will not be accepted and count as failed.

Weekly schedule and readings

Week 1, 5 April 2007: Introduction and Spatio-temporal concepts

• Chapter 1 (pp. 1-8) of D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York.
• Task: Find your own definitions for “space” and “time.”

Week 2, 12 April 2007: Acquisition and encoding of spatio-temporal knowledge

• Chapter 2 & 3 (pp. 11-55) of D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York.
• Chapter 8 (pp. 183-205) of D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York.

Week 3, 19 April 2007: Formal representation of spatio-temporal knowledge (AAG Meeting, self-study; please submit your assignment by email!)

• Chapters 9 & 10 (pp. 209-228) of D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York.
• Chapter 12 (pp. 262-281) of D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York.
• [OPTIONAL: Chapter 11 (pp. 229-261) of D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York.]

Week 4, 26 April 2007: Models of time and temporal DBMS

• Frank (1998) Different Types of "Times" in GIS. in: M. Egenhofer and R. Golledge (Eds.), Spatial and Temporal Reasoning in Geographic Information Systems. Spatial Information Systems pp. 40-62, Oxford University Press, New York.
• R. T. Snodgrass (1992) Temporal Databases. in: A. U. Frank, I. Campari, and U. Formentini (Eds.), Theories and Methods of Spatio-Temporal Reasoning in Geographic Space. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 639, pp. 22-64, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg-Berlin.

Week 5, 3 May 2007: Spatio-temporal ontologies

• Frank (2003) Ontology for spatio-temporal Databases. in: M. Koubarakis (Ed.), Spatiotemporal Databases: The Chorochronos Approach. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2520, pp. 9-77, Springer, Berlin.
• P. Grenon and B. Smith (2004) SNAP and SPAN: Towards Dynamic Spatial Ontology. Spatial Cognition and Computation 4(1): 69-104.

Week 6, 10 May 2007: Representing spatio-temporal data in GIS

• Chapter 14 (pp. 303-320) of D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York.
• D. Peuquet (2001) Making Space for Time: Issues in Space-Time Data Representation. GeoInformatica 5(1): 11-32.

Week 7, 17 May 2007: Spatio-temporal analysis in GIS: Wildfire management and forests

• M. Yuan (1997) Knowledge acquisition for building wildfire representation in Geographic Information Systems. The International Journal of Geographic Information Systems, 11(8):723-745.
• M. Yuan (1999) Use of a Three-Domain Representation to Enhance GIS Support for Complex Spatiotemporal Queries. Transactions in GIS 3(2): 137-159.

Week 8, 24 May 2007: Time geography

• T. Hägerstrand (1970) What about people in regional science? Papers of the Regional Science Association 24: 7-21.
• H. Miller (1991) Modeling accessibility using space-time prism concepts within geographical information systems. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 5: 287-301.

Week 9, 31 May 2007: GIS applications of time geography

• M. P. Kwan (2004) GIS Methods in Time-Geographic Research: Geocomputation and Geovisualization of Human Activity Patterns. Geografiska Annaler B 86(4): 267–280.
• M. Raubal, H. Miller, and S. Bridwell (2004) User-Centred Time Geography For Location-Based Services. Geografiska Annaler B 86(4): 245-265.

Week 10, 7 June 2007: Future issues and wrap-up

• M. Yuan (forthcoming) Challenges and critical issues for temporal GIS research and technologies. in: H. Karimi (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Geoinformatics. Information Science Reference. Hershey, PA, USA.
• Chapter 15 (pp. 321-323) of D. Peuquet (2002) Representations of Space and Time. Guilford, New York.