Pip Forer

Movement beyond the snapshot – Dynamic analysis of geospatial lifelines

Abstract Geographical Information Science is challenged by an unprecedented increase in the availability of tracking data related to human and animal movement, typically captured through location-aware portable devices such as GPS receivers. Capture of trajectory data at fine temporal and spatial granularities has allowed with the representation of detailed geospatial lifelines, opening new options for analysis. In this respect we propose a dynamic perspective to analysis which, in contrast to summary trajectory statistics on speed, motion azimuth or sinuosity, that refers to the variability of motion properties throughout the developing lifeline. Four specific lifeline context operators are identified in this paper: ‘instantaneous’, ‘interval’, ‘episodal’ and ‘total’. Using this framework, we discuss standardisations that integrate the extended set of motion descriptors within various temporal and spatial frames of reference and the proposed lifeline context operators and standardisations are illustrated using high resolution trajectory data obtained from homing pigeons carrying miniature global positioning devices.

Space, Time and Sequencing: Substitution at the Physical/ Virtual Interface

This chapter is concerned with methodologies for determining accessibility at an individual and aggregate level, both from the perspective of what the individual can access and of the degree to which many individuals can access a location. Throughout this chapter, however, the authors view accessibility as a time-space phenomenon, both in terms of how accessibility should be conceived and of how it should be reported. In essence, we attempt to take the space-time view of Hagerstrand (1970; 1975) and build from it a framework for defining accessibility in an enhanced way, making that definition operational for large numbers of people and extracting new forms of expression and query from it along the way.

Timelines, Environments and Issues of Risk in Health: The Practical Algebra of (x,y,t,a)

Life, as lived, is essentially a health risk, and it is a risk in terms of the environment we encounter just as surely as it is a risk in terms of the inherited genetics and lifestyle choices of individuals. We may make wise, or less wise, choices about how we equip ourselves to face health risks in the environment day by day. We may show similar variations in sagacity about where, when and what we choose to visit. But in the end we cannot avoid interaction with our environment and its highly variable risks. Such risks may be localised and short term, such as the risk of cutting one’s foot on glass on a beach on New Year’s Day, after revellers have been at work. They may be more widespread, cumulative and severe, such as the danger from exposure to sunshine in a summer, or a lifetime in environments with low levels exposures to, or absence of, subtle factors which spur or deter long-term deterioration in health (Schaerstrom 1996, Sabel 2000). There may be factors which are vague and generally invisible to the population, such as abnormal levels of background natural radiation, and/or there may be factors which act with a lag and only after extreme exposure (see Chapter 1). And risks may also be highly dynamic in space and time, as instanced by a range of biological vectors or the impact of a human carrier of a transmittable disease (Cliff et al. 1993). As discrete organisms ourselves, we may seek to modify our environment to mitigate such risks, and often succeed, but there remain relict risks of varying degrees of concern wherever we are.

The Space–Time Aquarium is Full of Albatrosses: Time Geography, Lifestyle and Trans-species Geovisual Analytics

The volume of research that involves movement track data sets of increasing size and complexity has grown significantly as data-capture technologies have developed and expectations for ongoing growth of research opportunities have hardened. Techniques for describing such data vary, some utilising a purely geometric measurement while others seeking to involve activity and purpose as elements of movement description. Such enriched data is typical of sentient entities that interact with their environment and other sentients. This paper is solely about such sentient, self-navigating objects. It is also restricted to consideration of movement fields through the lens of geovisual analytics, or equally, in this case, reviewing geovisual analytics through the lenses of a sample of sentient movement data sets. Fundamentally the paper asks whether different kinds of entity require adjustments to given visualisation tools, and if this is so, how such adjustments might be related to the different processes and geographies of the entities involved. The arguments are largely based around two ‘rich’ data sets: Halifax time use and Muriwai possum movement data sets.

Space, Time, Activity and Human Error: Using Space–Time Constraints to Interrogate the Degree of Uncertainty in Survey-Based Movement Datasets

Tourist activity is generally frenetic even while seemingly being relaxed. A significant change has been the rise in free, independent travellers who choose to tour autonomously and visit multiple destinations to their own schedules. This development has had major ramifications, impacting on local environments and communities by stimulating their economies but simultaneously demanding new facilities, displacing certain activities, and transmitting ideas and even disease as tourists contacting with their hosts becomes wider and more intense. Such tourism is quintessentially tied up with a dynamic geography of movement that generates demand and supply at different spatial scales. A growing recognition of these outcomes has highlighted the significance of movement data as a resource for understanding many aspects of human and animal activity and their geographies. Consequently, research interest has accelerated on the back of enhanced capabilities for tracking individual entities’ movements, typically with GPS sensors that collect individual time-tagged locational data cheaply and accurately. Prior to this, most movement studies used a paper-based survey methodology for data capture which was reliant on respondents’ recall of movement or the keeping of a diary. Unlike the GPS, this process permitted data capture which is enriched by information on the respondent’s profile, and ongoing activity, time use, and attitude, a distinction which continues to validate this methodology in a number of contexts. Legacy datasets gathered using surveys are known to have (non fatal) sources of inaccurate or incomplete responses, which in general have been documented only to a limited degree. This paper is concerned with using GIS technologies to more fully interrogate a case study database (tourists travel survey) so as to identify: (i) the level of uncertainty in given responses from individuals, (ii) the pattern of missing data and (iii) the degree to which such datasets can be enhanced by models using concepts found in time-geography.

Flexible delivery and social learning: Seeking a new geography of education for GIS and GIS in education

This paper looks at GIS education in the context of changes in society and technology. It argues that socio-economic pressures and technological change are both working to change the traditional dichotomous structure of tertiary education in respect of campus and distance learning models. In general, the changed lifestyles of a larger, less affluent student base are seen as combining with economic pressures on universities to create a mainstream demand for more flexible learning environments, a demand which new advances in applied information technology can assist in meeting. The paper considers these forces and how developments in educational technology in general are likely to impact on traditional methods of delivering GIS education.

Multiple-view strategies for enhanced understanding of dynamic tourist activity through geovisualization at regional and national scales

This article is part of research exploring various ways to visualize the complexity of sentient movement in space and time. In this case, visualization focuses on the movement of tourists on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, with some commentary on national tourist activity. Working at the atomistic level of the individual we adopt space, time, and activity (s,t,a) as the three main dimensions of sentient movement, but we emphasize activity as a privileged dimension where visualization is involved. The rationale for this is that when interpreting movements of individuals or crowds, most itineraries either reflect resources in the environment that encourage travel or avoid risk or cause delay, resources ranging from food and water to incoming sunshine or rain. Activity and process is at the heart of most rich movement data-sets, and we suggest that using multiple-view visualization to decode (s,t,a) and environmental patterns opens further avenues for interpreting and communicating dynamic human and animal geographies. To this end, this article focuses on investigating multiple-view geovisualizations through the lens of six groups of multiple views, each of them demonstrating data in a unique way, in order to reveal complex (s,t,a) patterns of rich tourist movement data. An insight-based domain expert user evaluation is discussed at the end of this article.