Hierarchical self-organizing maps for clustering spatiotemporal data

Spatial sciences are confronted with increasing amounts of high-dimensional data. These data commonly exhibit spatial and temporal dimensions. To explore, extract, and generalize inherent patterns in large spatiotemporal data sets, clustering algorithms are indispensable. These clustering algorithms must account for the distinct special properties of space and time to outline meaningful clusters in such data sets. Therefore, this research develops a hierarchical method based on self-organizing maps. The hierarchical architecture permits independent modeling of spatial and temporal dependence. To exemplify the utility of the method, this research uses an artificial data set and a socio-economic data set of the Ostregion, Austria, from the years 1961 to 2001. The results for the artificial data set demonstrate that the proposed method produces meaningful clusters that cannot be achieved when disregarding differences in spatial and temporal dependence. The results for the socio-economic data set show that the proposed method is an effective and powerful tool for analyzing spatiotemporal patterns in a regional context.     

A SIMILARITY MEASURE FOR CHEMICAL DATA: APPLICATIONS TO CLUSTER ANALYSIS

The results of unsupervised pattern recognition methods are critically dependent on the measure ofsimilarity used for clustering objects. There is little a priori information available on the relative utilityof various similarity measures. We introduce here an alternative similarity measure based on the metrictensor measure (MTM). Two standard clustering strategies are tested with the proposed similaritymeasure: hierarchical clustering and the K-median method. As data we use the ARCH obsidian data,a data set on Hungarian coal, and trace element data on Hungarian paprika. Differences from theMahalanobis distance measure are described for intraclass relations.     

A global analysis of cities’ geosocial temporal signatures for points of interest hours of operation

ABSTRACT

The temporal nature of humans interaction with Points of Interest (POIs) in cities can differ depending on place type and regional location. Times when many people are likely to visit restaurants (place type) in Italy, may differ from times when many people are likely to visit restaurants in Lebanon (i.e. regional differences). Geosocial data are a powerful resource to model these temporal differences in cities, as traditional methods used to study cross-cultural differences do not scale to a global level. As cities continue to grow in population and economic development, research identifying the social and geophysical (e.g., climate) factors that influence city function remains important and incomplete. In this work, we take a quantitative approach, applying dynamic time warping and hierarchical clustering on temporal signatures to model geosocial temporal patterns for Retail and Restaurant Facebook POIs hours of operation for more than 100 cities in 90 countries around the world. Results show cities’ temporal patterns cluster to reflect the cultural region they represent. Furthermore, temporal patterns are influenced by a mix of social and geophysical factors. Trends in the data suggest social factors influence unique drops in temporal signatures, and geophysical factors influence when daily temporal patterns start and finish.     

Two-stage permutation tests for determining homogeneity within a spatial cluster

The discovery of spatial clusters formed by proximal spatial units with similar non-spatial attribute values plays an important role in spatial data analysis. Although several spatial contiguity-constrained clustering methods are currently available, almost all of them discover clusters in a geographical dataset, even though the dataset has no natural clustering structure. Statistically evaluating the significance of the degree of homogeneity within a single spatial cluster is difficult. To overcome this limitation, this study develops a permutation test approach Specifically, the homogeneity of a spatial cluster is measured based on the local variance and cluster member permutation, and two-stage permutation tests are developed to determine the significance of the degree of homogeneity within each spatial cluster. The proposed permutation tests can be integrated into the existing spatial clustering algorithms to detect homogeneous spatial clusters. The proposed tests are compared with four existing tests (i.e., Park’s test, the contiguity-constrained nonparametric analysis of variance (COCOPAN) method, spatial scan statistic, and q-statistic) using two simulated and two meteorological datasets. The comparison shows that the proposed two-stage permutation tests are more effective to identify homogeneous spatial clusters and to determine homogeneous clustering structures in practical applications.     

Detecting clusters over intercity transportation networks using K-shortest paths and hierarchical clustering: a case study of mainland China

Intercity transportation infrastructures and services determine the depth and breadth of the spatial interactions among cities within an urban agglomeration, and have profound impacts on the spatial structure of the urban agglomeration. To evaluate whether the public intercity ground transportation infrastructures and services (i.e. passenger trains and long-distance buses) can support the integration and development of urban agglomerations, we propose a method for ‘transportation cluster’ detection (TCD), which has three unique features: (1) the K-shortest paths are used to quantify the proximity between cities, which is more in line with people’s travel behaviors; (2) a dendrogram is obtained through hierarchical clustering to reveal the structural hierarchies of transportation clusters; and (3) the integration of geo-modularity and hierarchical clustering assures high strength of division of transportation networks. The proposed TCD method was applied to the network of passenger trains, the network of long-distance buses, and the combined network of both in mainland China, respectively. By comparing the resultant transportation clusters with the urban agglomerations delineated by the Chinese government, cities that have weak transportation connections with other cities within an urban agglomeration were identified, and such findings could help devise transportation planning to better support the integrated development of urban agglomerations.     

基于局部聚类的网络Voronoi图生成方法研究

提出一种将网络约束下的Voronoi和空间聚类相结合的方法,通过构造局部的聚类分析方法对网络边进行加权,根据实际的点过程性质可以把权重定义为加权或者乘权,进行标准化后与道路段本身长度融合进行计算,依此生成网络Voronoi图,以期理解城市街道的空间特性。以武汉市江汉区为例,对城市网格管理系统产生的城市事件进行算法验证,结果表明,该方法提供了一种灵活的网络约束下的服务区域划分工具,可用于基于网络空间点过程影响下的服务区划分,也可用于系统性地定量刻画城市管理的动态特性。     

广东省“人口—经济—土地—社会—生态”城市化协调度时空变化及其聚类模式

多维城市化协调度评价是衡量区域城市化质量的重要方面,探究城市化时空聚类模式则是分析区域城市化特征的有效方法。针对目前城市化协调度评价缺乏多维度时空综合分析的现状,本文以广东省为例,提出一种基于时空权重矩阵的复杂时空系统协调度评价模型,运用此模型分析2006-2014年城市化协调度的时空变化特征,并借助时空扫描方法分析其聚类模式。研究结论为：①近10年来城市化水平呈现3种时序特征,人口城市化水平表现出随时间均衡发展的“集中”特征,而经济与土地表现出低频次的“集中与分散”交替,社会、生态及综合水平表现出高频次的“集中与分散”交替;稳定型城市主要位于珠三角核心区。②各维度及综合系统协调度时空聚类区既有空间分异性又有重叠性,人口协调度时空聚类于粤西地区,经济与土地维度协调度时空聚类高度重合于珠三角与粤北地区,社会与生态维度协调度时空聚类交叉于珠三角与粤东地区,而综合系统协调度居中。此外,时空聚类区的人口、经济与社会维度的协调度稳定性要优于土地与生态维度。本文结论有助于揭示区域城市化的时空特征。     

A spatial cognition-based urban building clustering approach and its applications

This article presents a spatial cognition analysis technique for automated urban building clustering based on urban morphology and Gestalt theory. The proximity graph is selected to present the urban mrphology. The proximity graph considers the local adjacency among buildings, providing a large degree of freedom in object displacement and aggregation. Then, three principles of Gestalt theories, proximity, similarity, and common directions, are considered to extract potential Gestalt building clusters. Next, the Gestalt features are further characterized with seven indicators, that is, area difference, height difference, similarity difference, orientation difference, linear arrangement difference, interval difference, and oblique degree of arrangement. A support vector machine (SVM)-based approach is employed to extract the Gestalt building clusters. This approach transforms the Gestalt cluster extraction into a supervised discrimination process. The method presents a generalized approach for clustering buildings of a given street block into groups, while maintaining the spatial pattern and adjacency of buildings during the displacement operation. In applications of urban building generalization and three-dimensional (3D) urban panoramic-like view, the method presented in this article adequately preserves the spatial patterns, distributions, and arrangements of urban buildings. Moreover, the final 3D panoramic-like views ensure the accurate appearance of important features and landscapes.     

A trajectory clustering approach based on decision graph and data field for detecting hotspots

Spatial clustering can be used to discover hotspots in trajectory data. A trajectory clustering approach based on decision graph and data field is proposed as an effective method to select parameters for clustering, to determine the number of clusters, and to identify cluster centers. Synthetic data and real-world taxi trajectory data are utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Results show that the proposed method can automatically determine the parameters for clustering as well as perform efficiently in trajectory clustering. Hotspots are identified and visualized during different times of a single day and at the same times on different days. The dynamic patterns of hotspots can be used to identify crowded areas and events, which are crucial for urban transportation planning and management.     

A density-based approach for detecting network-constrained clusters in spatial point events

Existing spatial clustering methods primarily focus on points distributed in planar space. However, occurrence locations and background processes of most human mobility events within cities are constrained by the road network space. Here we describe a density-based clustering approach for objectively detecting clusters in network-constrained point events. First, the network-constrained Delaunay triangulation is constructed to facilitate the measurement of network distances between points. Then, a combination of network kernel density estimation and potential entropy is executed to determine the optimal neighbourhood size. Furthermore, all network-constrained events are tested under a null hypothesis to statistically identify core points with significantly high densities. Finally, spatial clusters can be formed by expanding from the identified core points. Experimental comparisons performed on the origin and destination points of taxis in Beijing demonstrate that the proposed method can ascertain network-constrained clusters precisely and significantly. The resulting time-dependent patterns of clusters will be informative for taxi route selections in the future.     

Evolution of clusters in dynamic point patterns: with a case study of Ants' simulation

Recent developments in sensing and tracking technologies have enabled large geographical databases to be established that represent spatial dynamics of ‘behavioral entities’. Within this type of dynamics there are several levels and modes of organization that need to be revealed. Clusters are high‐level groupings of entities, where change in their location and form, including split and merge events, represents self‐organization and functioning patterns. Such information may contribute for better understanding spatially complex dynamic patterns. The main objective of this article is to develop an adaptable methodology that facilitates exploration of spatial order and processes in point pattern dynamics. The approach presented here utilizes data‐clustering at each snapshot of the moving pattern, and then involves pairwise linking between the clusters identified at each snapshot and those identified in the following snapshot. Such linking is based on a new methodology that defines well globally optimized solutions for numerous possible linking combinations based on Linear Programming. A preliminary assessment of the approach was conducted with an existing Ants' simulation tool, capable of creating data sets covering in detail a substantial portion of the nest's life cycle.     

Testing for similarity in area-based spatial patterns: A nonparametric Monte Carlo approach

The proliferation of geographic information systems and point data has made the analysis of spatial point patterns of increasing interest in a variety of disciplines. Though early forms of spatial point pattern analysis were limited in their scope, current forms have been developed that provide significant insight into underlying data generating processes. This paper builds on the spatial point pattern analysis literature through the development of a nonparametric Monte Carlo spatial point pattern test (and corresponding index) to measure the degree of similarity between two spatial point patterns. The applicability of this new test is then shown using crime data.     

Spatio-temporal analysis of crime by developing a method to detect critical distances for the Knox test

The present study examined and compared spatio–temporal interaction of the theft of car parts, shop burglary and motorcycle theft in the central business district (CBD) of the city of Zanjan in Iran. The Knox test was selected to detect spatio–temporal interaction. This test has been criticized as being subjective because the selection of critical distances is arbitrary; thus, a method is proposed to detect critical distances in the Knox test using the mean distance, natural breaks classification of nearest neighbour (NN) distance and Ripley’s k function. Results show obvious differences between the spatio-temporal clusters of the three sets of crimes. They also indicate that changing the spatial cut-offs within a cluster creates different temporal patterns. Of the three criteria for determining critical distances, NN classification based on natural breaks showed more interactions than the other methods.     

Exploration of spatiotemporal and semantic clusters of Twitter data using unsupervised neural networks

ABSTRACT

The investigation of human activity patterns from location-based social networks like Twitter is an established approach of how to infer relationships and latent information that characterize urban structures. Researchers from various disciplines have performed geospatial analysis on social media data despite the data’s high dimensionality, complexity and heterogeneity. However, user-generated datasets are of multi-scale nature, which results in limited applicability of commonly known geospatial analysis methods. Therefore in this paper, we propose a geographic, hierarchical self-organizing map (Geo-H-SOM) to analyze geospatial, temporal and semantic characteristics of georeferenced tweets. The results of our method, which we validate in a case study, demonstrate the ability to explore, abstract and cluster high-dimensional geospatial and semantic information from crowdsourced data.     

基于局部空间统计的产业集群空间分析——以北京市制造业集群为例

将集群识别与空间分析相结合,通过全国集群模板识别产业集群,进而利用局部空间统计方法,探测产业集群的空间布局特征。利用2008年北京市和全国经济普查数据,从产业联系的角度识别了北京市制造业集群,在此基础上进一步测度了北京市制造业集群的空间分布现状与布局特征。研究发现,北京市制造业集群主要分布在近郊区并向远郊区延伸,资源条件、政策环境、交通区位、历史因素等多种区位因子均对集群的区位选择产生影响。从总体分布来看,北京市制造业集群的空间布局存在分布比较分散、功能重叠或与区县功能定位不符等问题。未来在政策制定时,应进一步强化北京市制造业集群的空间集聚,发挥区域产业政策的引导作用,并不断依托产业园区优化集群发展环境,引导符合区县功能定位的制造业集群发展。     

Characteristics and Determinants of China’s Ice-and-Snow Tourism Industrial Cluster

Ice-and-snow tourism (IST) is a booming industry, and the development of its industrial clusters reflects its regional development quality. Taking 1985-2021 data for China’s IST enterprises, this study used industrial cluster identification and industrial correlation analysis to explore the development of IST industrial clusters. The following results were obtained: (1) China’s IST initially formed hotspot industrial clusters in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Northeast, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Chengdu-Chongqing, and Xinjiang regions. (2) Multiple industry forms failed to become deeply integrated into development, indicating a need to optimize the structure of the IST industrial chain. (3) The development environment of IST industrial clusters in each province showed differentiated characteristics. (4) IST industrial clustering was affected by both internal and external factors. External factors were grouped into climate and ice-and-snow resources, government policies and sports events, and economic fundamentals and market conditions. Internal factors included industrial association and industrial integration in the IST industrial cluster. Based on this study’s identification of the characteristics of China’s IST industrial clusters, countermeasures are proposed for their optimal development.     

Exploring a combination of objective and subjective assessment in landscape classification: Side case from Turkey

Landscape is a product of interactions between human and nature that bring multiple characteristics to discrete geographic settings. Landscape character assessment (LCA) is a process of describing, mapping and evaluating distinct characters in the landscape. The aim of this study is to integrate objective and subjective assessment in landscape classification in the case of Side district in Antalya, Turkey. The methodology of the study is based on a holistic approach to combine map-based biophysical information and on-site visual landscape characteristics into the LCA process. Principal component and cluster analysis were used to understand relationships and spatial patterns between 29 landscape character areas and types which were previously defined by previous work. The main source of data was landscape characters, and 35 character attributes was processed as variables. Cluster analysis showed that landscape character areas and types in Side were gathered into two main cluster groups and five sub clusters. The majority of landscape character areas tended to constitute separate subclusters, while character types appeared to form large groups of clusters in which recognisable land-use patterns were the main activity. According to the cluster dendrogram, it was possible to interpret spatial linkages between the clusters of character areas and types and to delineate geographic classification of the main landscapes in Side. Scaling relations for LCA in a pattern-process-product framework provided an explicit understanding of the data layers in landscape classification and where the clustering can function. Biophysical characteristics comprised the pattern of the landscape, while visual characteristics demonstrated the condition of the landscape as a product. The process depends upon transformation between the objective and the subjective as a link between pattern and product. Further steps would be to conduct semistructured surveys to assess local perceptions and preferences about landscape characters for landscape quality objectives.     

基于临近相似性考虑的犯罪热点密度图预测准确性比较——以DP半岛街头抢劫犯罪为例

在无时空考虑的密度估计算法基础上,分别加入了案件点之间的时间临近相似性、空间临近相似性和时空临近相似性的考虑,利用DP半岛2006~2007年的街头抢劫犯罪数据为基础计算无时空临近相似性、时间临近相似性、空间临近相似性和时空临近相似性4种不同算法所得到的犯罪热点图,并以之预测2008年的街头抢劫。通过Natural breaks（Jenks）分级方法和等比例面积选取两种方式来划定热点区域进行预测并进行PAI指数得分比较,结果表明时空临近相似性的密度估计算方法在犯罪预测的优势比较显著。     

Exploring the uncertainty of activity zone detection using digital footprints with multi-scaled DBSCAN

ABSTRACT

The density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) method is often used to identify individual activity clusters (i.e., zones) using digital footprints captured from social networks. However, DBSCAN is sensitive to the two parameters, eps and minpts. This paper introduces an improved density-based clustering algorithm, Multi-Scaled DBSCAN (M-DBSCAN), to mitigate the detection uncertainty of clusters produced by DBSCAN at different scales of density and cluster size. M-DBSCAN iteratively calibrates suitable local eps and minpts values instead of using one global parameter setting as DBSCAN for detecting clusters of varying densities, and proves to be effective for detecting potential activity zones. Besides, M-DBSCAN can significantly reduce the noise ratio by identifying all points capturing the activities performed in each zone. Using the historic geo-tagged tweets of users in Washington, D.C. and in Madison, Wisconsin, the results reveal that: 1) M-DBSCAN can capture dispersed clusters with low density of points, and therefore detecting more activity zones for each user; 2) A value of 40 m or higher should be used for eps to reduce the possibility of collapsing distinctive activity zones; and 3) A value between 200 and 300 m is recommended for eps while using DBSCAN for detecting activity zones.     

Windowed nearest neighbour method for mining spatio-temporal clusters in the presence of noise

In a spatio-temporal data set, identifying spatio-temporal clusters is difficult because of the coupling of time and space and the interference of noise. Previous methods employ either the window scanning technique or the spatio-temporal distance technique to identify spatio-temporal clusters. Although easily implemented, they suffer from the subjectivity in the choice of parameters for classification. In this article, we use the windowed kth nearest (WKN) distance (the geographic distance between an event and its kth geographical nearest neighbour among those events from which to the event the temporal distances are no larger than the half of a specified time window width [TWW]) to differentiate clusters from noise in spatio-temporal data. The windowed nearest neighbour (WNN) method is composed of four steps. The first is to construct a sequence of TWW factors, with which the WKN distances of events can be computed at different temporal scales. Second, the appropriate values of TWW (i.e. the appropriate temporal scales, at which the number of false positives may reach the lowest value when classifying the events) are indicated by the local maximum values of densities of identified clustered events, which are calculated over varying TWW by using the expectation-maximization algorithm. Third, the thresholds of the WKN distance for classification are then derived with the determined TWW. In the fourth step, clustered events identified at the determined TWW are connected into clusters according to their density connectivity in geographic–temporal space. Results of simulated data and a seismic case study showed that the WNN method is efficient in identifying spatio-temporal clusters. The novelty of WNN is that it can not only identify spatio-temporal clusters with arbitrary shapes and different spatio-temporal densities but also significantly reduce the subjectivity in the classification process.