Generic modeling of application and spatiotemporal data: Application to the study of pedestrian behavior

Abstract

In this paper we propose a methodology describing a global process used to model both urban spatiotemporal data and applications. During the design phase, we use a tool based on the Entity-Relation formalism that is dedicated to spatiotemporal data design (MADS). The resulting conceptual schemas are adapted to the particularities of the urban data by distinguishing between physical concepts (continuants) and events (occurents). This distinction enables a better readability of conceptual schemas and a more powerful interoperability. The resulting schemas are then implemented in an Object Oriented environment. In the end, we use a GIS to query and graphically represent urban data. In order to test the capacity of our proposed modeling methodology in a real case, we apply it on a case study whose objective is to analyze pedestrian walkways in urban areas.