Summary

The objective of a thematic change analysis is to explore, understand and/or to forecast changes in the properties of spatial features. Since only the thematic and the time dimensions are concerned, many “standard” methods and techniques are offered to analyse such changes. Therefore, the main challenge is to select the most appropriate methodology that satisfies our objectives in a specific informational context. One can describe either the overall pattern of change within a set of spatial features throughout a period of time, or the analysis can concentrate on their individual change characteristics.

This Unit proposes a framework to organise potential methods with respect to the objectives and to the information context of the change analysis. It is structured into three sections: the production of change indices, the description of the behaviour of time series, and multivariate time change analysis. Such approaches are mainly concerned with the thematic changes of the properties of spatial features, both at univariate and multivariate levels.