A representation framework for studying spatiotemporal changes and interactions of dynamic geographic phenomena

Abstract

This research presented a framework to track and query spatiotemporal changes and interactions of dynamic geographic phenomena. The framework organized information of dynamic phenomena as a hierarchy of static structures, processes, and scenarios. Static structures of a dynamic phenomenon at its different evolution stages were described by its corepoint, footprint border, and composite border, which were extracted from time series remote sensing images. Time series static structures of a phenomenon were then grouped into processes to show its changes over space and time. Scenarios were used to describe a collection of interacting processes in space. We expanded the identity-based change (IBC) model by adding more primitives and operations to represent semantics of these changes and interactions. A geographic information system (GIS) database was built by integrating the expanded IBC model with our spatiotemporal framework. As demonstrated by a case study of ocean eddies in the South China Sea (SCS), query results of the behaviors and relationships of ocean eddies from the GIS database help us better understand their development and evolution, demonstrating the usefulness of this spatiotemporal framework. Spatial and semantic queries about a specific eddy from the database can further efficiently present its lifetime dynamic changes and all other eddies that interacted with it.