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Description
This dissertation addresses the research challenge of developing efficient new methods for discovering useful patterns and knowledge in large volumes of electronically collected spatiotemporal activity data. I propose to analyze three types of such spatiotemporal activity data in a methodological framework that integrates spatial analysis, data mining, machine learning, and

This dissertation addresses the research challenge of developing efficient new methods for discovering useful patterns and knowledge in large volumes of electronically collected spatiotemporal activity data. I propose to analyze three types of such spatiotemporal activity data in a methodological framework that integrates spatial analysis, data mining, machine learning, and geovisualization techniques. Three different types of spatiotemporal activity data were collected through different data collection approaches: (1) crowd sourced geo-tagged digital photos, representing people's travel activity, were retrieved from the website Panoramio.com through information retrieval techniques; (2) the same techniques were used to crawl crowd sourced GPS trajectory data and related metadata of their daily activities from the website OpenStreetMap.org; and finally (3) preschool children's daily activities and interactions tagged with time and geographical location were collected with a novel TabletPC-based behavioral coding system. The proposed methodology is applied to these data to (1) automatically recommend optimal multi-day and multi-stay travel itineraries for travelers based on discovered attractions from geo-tagged photos, (2) automatically detect movement types of unknown moving objects from GPS trajectories, and (3) explore dynamic social and socio-spatial patterns of preschool children's behavior from both geographic and social perspectives.
ContributorsLi, Xun (Author) / Anselin, Luc (Thesis advisor) / Koschinsky, Julia (Committee member) / Maciejewski, Ross (Committee member) / Rey, Sergio (Committee member) / Griffin, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
The shortest path between two locations is important for spatial analysis, location modeling, and wayfinding tasks. Depending on permissible movement and availability of data, the shortest path is either derived from a pre-defined transportation network or constructed in continuous space. However, continuous space movement adds substantial complexity to identifying the

The shortest path between two locations is important for spatial analysis, location modeling, and wayfinding tasks. Depending on permissible movement and availability of data, the shortest path is either derived from a pre-defined transportation network or constructed in continuous space. However, continuous space movement adds substantial complexity to identifying the shortest path as the influence of obstacles has to be considered to avoid errors and biases in a derived path. This obstacle-avoiding shortest path in continuous space has been referred to as Euclidean shortest path (ESP), and attracted the attention of many researchers. It has been proven that constructing a graph is an effective approach to limit infinite search options associated with continuous space, reducing the problem to a finite set of potential paths. To date, various methods have been developed for ESP derivation. However, their computational efficiency is limited due to fundamental limitations in graph construction. In this research, a novel algorithm is developed for efficient identification of a graph guaranteed to contain the ESP. This new approach is referred to as the convexpath algorithm, and exploits spatial knowledge and GIS functionality to efficiently construct a graph. The convexpath algorithm utilizes the notion of a convex hull to simultaneously identify relevant obstacles and construct the graph. Additionally, a spatial filtering technique based on intermediate shortest path is enhances intelligent identification of relevant obstacles. Empirical applications show that the convexpath algorithm is able to construct a graph and derive the ESP with significantly improved efficiency compared to visibility and local visibility graph approaches. Furthermore, to boost the performance of convexpath in big data environments, a parallelization approach is proposed and applied to exploit computationally intensive spatial operations of convexpath. Multicore CPU parallelization demonstrates noticeable efficiency gain over the sequential convexpath. Finally, spatial representation and approximation issues associated with raster-based approximation of the ESP are assessed. This dissertation provides a comprehensive treatment of the ESP, and details an important approach for deriving an optimal ESP in real time.
ContributorsHong, Insu (Author) / Murray, Alan T. (Thesis advisor) / Kuby, Micheal (Committee member) / Rey, Sergio (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
As urban populations become increasingly dense, massive amounts of new 'big' data that characterize human activity are being made available and may be characterized as having a large volume of observations, being produced in real-time or near real-time, and including a diverse variety of information. In particular, spatial interaction (SI)

As urban populations become increasingly dense, massive amounts of new 'big' data that characterize human activity are being made available and may be characterized as having a large volume of observations, being produced in real-time or near real-time, and including a diverse variety of information. In particular, spatial interaction (SI) data - a collection of human interactions across a set of origins and destination locations - present unique challenges for distilling big data into insight. Therefore, this dissertation identifies some of the potential and pitfalls associated with new sources of big SI data. It also evaluates methods for modeling SI to investigate the relationships that drive SI processes in order to focus on human behavior rather than data description.

A critical review of the existing SI modeling paradigms is first presented, which also highlights features of big data that are particular to SI data. Next, a simulation experiment is carried out to evaluate three different statistical modeling frameworks for SI data that are supported by different underlying conceptual frameworks. Then, two approaches are taken to identify the potential and pitfalls associated with two newer sources of data from New York City - bike-share cycling trips and taxi trips. The first approach builds a model of commuting behavior using a traditional census data set and then compares the results for the same model when it is applied to these newer data sources. The second approach examines how the increased temporal resolution of big SI data may be incorporated into SI models.

Several important results are obtained through this research. First, it is demonstrated that different SI models account for different types of spatial effects and that the Competing Destination framework seems to be the most robust for capturing spatial structure effects. Second, newer sources of big SI data are shown to be very useful for complimenting traditional sources of data, though they are not sufficient substitutions. Finally, it is demonstrated that the increased temporal resolution of new data sources may usher in a new era of SI modeling that allows us to better understand the dynamics of human behavior.
ContributorsOshan, Taylor Matthew (Author) / Fotheringham, A. S. (Thesis advisor) / Farmer, Carson J.Q. (Committee member) / Rey, Sergio S.J. (Committee member) / Nelson, Trisalyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017