Summary

What has changed? Where? When? How? What could change in the future? How do things or organisms move through space?

Change analyses are very ambitious studies in a sense that they integrate the dimension of time. This is particularly true when applied to spatial analyses. In our model of reality – the biosphere – we have structured it into three basic dimensions: thematic, geometric and time. The static analysis of the spatial distribution of phenomena has required a context called the spatial dimension; it combines both the thematic and geometric dimensions, in order to investigate the spatial distribution and its pattern.

With change analyses the time dimension has to be integrated into the context. Change analysis encompasses both the evolution of thematic properties of spatial features as well as the spatial dynamics. The objective of this Lesson is to review methods used in these different types of change analyses. It is structured into three Units with the following content.

As an introduction to this topic, Unit 1 presents a variety of contexts in which time changes occur. In order to identify specific objectives and methodologies within these contexts, this Unit proposes a list of key factors controlling contexts of time analysis. This leads also to isolate two complementary approaches: the evolution of thematic properties of spatial features (Thematic changes) and the evolution of spatial distribution and patterns, that includes the analysis of movements in space (Spatial dynamics).