Space-Time Behavior Research and Application in China - Space-Time Integration in Geography and GIScience - page 32

infrastructure site planning. The space-time behavior approach has been viewed a
human-oriented approach to urban and transportation planning, as urban planning
is transforming from serving the economic growth purpose to promoting livable
and sustainable cities (Lu et al. 2009 ;Chaietal. 2010c ). In particular, urban
scholars and planners have begun to realize the importance of serving diverse needs
of urban residents in transitional urban China. To meet this goal, the space-time
behavior approach offers an effective way for understanding individuals' spatio-
temporal demands in order to adjust the urban spatial planning and spatial structure
to improve the quality of urban life in China.
Similar to Western cities, traffic congestion and accessibility deficiency have
become primary challenges to Chinese cities during rapid urbanization. As the
temporal dimension received more attention in the 1990s, the space-time behavior
approach grew in popularity in transportation research, planning, and management
in China (e.g. Shen and Chai 2012 on commuting flexibility; Gu et al. 2012
on traffic congestion; and Fang et al. 2012 on transportation links). Transporta-
tion research from this approach has emphasized the use of individuals as the
unit of analysis, an integrated spatio-temporal analysis of activity-based travel
demands, and the accounting of space-time constraints for travel decisions. Based on
time-geographical framework, the accessibility-oriented planning method has been
particularly useful in analyzing the spatio-temporal patterns of critical transportation
links (Fang et al. 2012 ). The geovisualization and simulation modeling of space-
time behavior have been performed to map and predict visitor flows and activity
patterns (Zhu and Wang 2008 ;Wangetal. 2009 ; Huang and Ma 2011 ).
Similar methods have been used in other planning practices. In a case study of
the Summer Palace in Beijing, Huang ( 2009 ) and Huang and Ma ( 2011 ) adopted
a time-geographic approach to study the space-time patterns of tourist behaviors
by combining 3D geovisualization method with statistical tools. Huang ( 2010 )also
suggested the application of the space-time behavior approach in tourists' travel
route optimization and in tourists' time-sharing plan in order to achieve dynamic
management of tourism attractions.
Wang and his colleagues at Tongji University have applied their studies on
consumers' shopping behavior to spatial optimization of commercial streets, such as
Wangfujing Street in Beijing (Wang et al. 2009 , 2011a ; Zhu and Wang 2007 ), East
Nanjing Road (Zhu et al. 2006 ; Zhu and Wang 2008 ) and Xintiandi (Xu and Wang
2012 ) in Shanghai. Moreover, the space-time behavior simulation was used in an
infrastructure site planning for the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Through a virtual survey
of space-time behavior, Wang and Ma ( 2009 ) simulated the travel flows of 4,000
visitors to predict the spatial-temporal distribution of visitor flows and visitors'
demands for dining and other services. Based on the simulation and prediction,
suggestions of site change were proposed to improve the transportation outcomes
of the Shanghai Expo infrastructure.
Finally, the space-time behavior approach has also been adopted in the smart city
strategic planning for Chengde City in Hebei Province. To scale up this case, schol-
ars from Peking University are teaming up with Beijing Transportation Research
Center and Tsinghua University in the research project, “ Key Technologies of Urban