A multivariate hierarchical regionalization method to discovering spatiotemporal patterns

In GIScience, the regionalization method is widely used for geographical data mining, spatiotemporal pattern discovery, and regional studies. An ideal regionalization method should consider spatial contiguity, temporal contiguity, and attribute similarity. Existing regionalization approaches mostly...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Haoran Wang, Haiping Zhang, Hui Zhu, Fei Zhao, Shangjing Jiang, Guoan Tang, Liyang Xiong
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2023-12-01
Series:GIScience & Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15481603.2023.2176704
Description
Summary:In GIScience, the regionalization method is widely used for geographical data mining, spatiotemporal pattern discovery, and regional studies. An ideal regionalization method should consider spatial contiguity, temporal contiguity, and attribute similarity. Existing regionalization approaches mostly focus on spatial contiguity and attribute similarity while ignoring the temporal contiguity characteristics of geographic phenomena. We propose a multivariate spatiotemporal regionalization (STR) method that considers spatiotemporal contiguity and attribute similarity. We design a bottom – up unsupervised multivariate hierarchical clustering algorithm with constraints using spatiotemporal proximity rules, enabling the automatic regionalization of spatiotemporal data. To test the performance of the STR method, we applied it to a synthetic dataset and a real-world dataset (Chinese air pollutant data) and achieved ideal results. Such a method offers a spatiotemporal perspective to address regionalization or clustering problems, potentially supporting other applications in spatiotemporal data analysis, remote sensing, urban planning, and social science.
ISSN:1548-1603
1943-7226