A Spatio-Temporal Taxonomy for the Representation of Spatial Set Behaviours

Currently, most models proposed for spatio-temporal databases describe changes that involve independent entities. However, many dynamic applications need new models to relate evolution of spatial entities linked by common properties and constraints or relationships. In transportation GIS, an activity-event matrix describes individual entity behaviours, travel activities and routes on a transportation network. On the other hand, modelling disaggregate travel choices behaviour for several entities implies the identification of new mechanisms to describe the evolution of their joint spatial distribution. This paper introduces and describes the concept of sets of geographical entities needed for the analysis of travel behaviour in metropolitan areas. We propose a taxonomy for the description of the evolution of entity sets in space and the selection of appropriate statistical indexes to analyse their geographical patterns. Such a framework may become a reference for the development of spatio-temporal database representations of spatial patterns evolution.