Space-Time Behavior Research and Application in China - Space-Time Integration in Geography and GIScience - page 33

Space-time Behavior Analysis and Application Demonstration of Smart Travel
Service Platform ,” sponsored by China's Ministry of Science and Technology. As
part of the umbrella project “ Key Technologies of Public Information Platform of
Smart City Management and Application Demonstration ,” this research aims at
developing a smart-travel service platform in Beijing that integrates multiple sources
of activity-travel data for data mining and simulation of space-time behavior, and
thus facilitates smart-travel planning and management from an individual space-
time behavior approach.

3.4 Conclusions and Discussion

In summary, space-time behavior research has become an influential approach in
Chinese urban geography since its introduction to China in the 1990s. The progress
made in the past decade has demonstrated the major potential of the space-time
behavioral approach to understanding the process, dynamics, and implications of
China's urban transformation from a micro-level perspective. This approach has
been adopted not only in empirical research but also in planning practices to address
various social and environmental issues in Chinese cities.
However, while Chinese geographers have made tremendous methodological
progress in space-time behavior research, the field's theoretical progress still lags
behind significantly. In particular, how can time geography and the space-time
approach contribute to the theorization of current urban transformation in China that
meshes with the institutional transition from a central-planned economy to a market-
oriented one? Existing urban theories, while developed in the Western context of
a capitalist market economy, often cannot fully explain such an unprecedented
transformation that has profoundly transformed the urban landscape and individual
daily-life experience. Thus, more theoretical progress is necessary for space-time
behavior research on urban China so that it can contribute more directly to cutting-
edge theoretical debates in the international academic community.
In addition, both Western and Chinese urban geographers face common chal-
lenges despite major technical breakthroughs. For instance, while high-quality
space-time data have become more available, to what extent do more data mean
better information? Although large-sample, high-resolution space-time data allow
for more accurate geovisualization of space-time activity patterns, how can the
interpretation of such patterns add new knowledge to the interactions between
individual space-time experiences and the urban transformation process? Finally,
whereas the space-time activity approach has been powerful in understanding urban
spaces, how can this approach better inform urban planning practices to address
critical social and environmental issues in cities? Although both Chinese and
Western cities currently face major planning challenges, mutual benefit will occur
based on more interaction and collaboration between scholars from both parts of the
world.