A new framework for the integration, analysis and visualisation of urban traffic data within geographic information systems

Current geographical information systems (GIS) are not well adapted to the management of very dynamic geographical phenomena. This is due to the lack of conceptual and physical interoperability with real-time computing facili ties. The research described in this paper is oriented towards the identifi cation and experimentation of a new methodological and applied framework fo r the real-time integration, manipulation and visualisation of urban traffi c data. It is based on proactive interaction between the spatiotemporal dat abase and visualisation levels, and between the visualisation and end-user levels. The proposed framework integrates different spatial and temporal le vels of granularity during the analysis of urban traffic data. Urban traffi c behaviours are analysed either by observation of the movements of several vehicles in space, or by changes in urban network properties (i.e., micro- versus macro-modelling). Visualisation and interaction tools together cons titute a flexible interface environment for the visualisation of urban traf fic data within GIS. These concepts provide a relevant support for the visu al analysis of urban traffic patterns in the thematic, spatial and temporal dimensions. This integrated framework is illustrated by an experimental pr ototype developed in a large town in the UK. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.