Urban spatiotemporal data modeling: Application to the study of pedestrian walkways

Abstract

In this paper we propose a methodology describing a global process used to model urban spatiotemporal data. During the design phase, we use a tool based on the Entity-Relation formalism that is dedicated to the spatiotemporal data design (MADS). The resulting conceptual schemas are adapted to the particularities of the urban data by distinguishing between physical concepts (continuants) and events (occurents). This distinction enables a better readability of conceptual schemas and a more powerful interoperability. The resulting schemas are then implemented in an Object Oriented environment. In the end, we use a GIS to query and graphically restitute the urban data. In order to test the capacity of our proposed modeling methodology in a real case, we apply it on a case study whose objective is to analyze pedestrian walkways in urban areas. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.