BUILDING AN INTEGRATED WEB-BASED ENVIRONMENT FOR EXPLORATORY SPATIOTEMPORAL DATA ANALYSIS

Abstract. Before conducting domain-specific modelling, one task faced by researchers is trying to effectively explore the data. There has been much research done to put spatiotemporal data analysis functions online. However, there is still a gap between the spatial data and the analysis procedures. Manually matching the data sources and the geoprocessing services would be a troublesome job for normal users. Furthermore, geoprocessing services published online are still limited and mostly target only static spatial data. This paper investigates an integrated web-based environment, which incorporates several open source software packages including PySAL, R, JTS, and customized implementations for exploratory functions such as the gravity model and the center-of-gravity model. Users can navigate spatial data and perform spatial analysis directly on them, without knowing the complexities of data transformation and integration. Both data sources and the analytic functions can be dynamically added. The environment released users from the great burden of intermediate data processing unrelated to their work.