Efficient Geo-Computational Algorithms for Constructing Space-Time Prisms in Road Networks

The Space-time prism (STP) is a key concept in time geography for analyzing human activity-travel behavior under various Space-time constraints. Most existing time-geographic studies use a straightforward algorithm to construct STPs in road networks by using two one-to-all shortest path searches. However, this straightforward algorithm can introduce considerable computational overhead, given the fact that accessible links in a STP are generally a small portion of the whole network. To address this issue, an efficient geo-computational algorithm, called NTP-A*, is proposed. The proposed NTP-A* algorithm employs the A* and branch-and-bound techniques to discard inaccessible links during two shortest path searches, and thereby improves the STP construction performance. Comprehensive computational experiments are carried out to demonstrate the computational advantage of the proposed algorithm. Several implementation techniques, including the label-correcting technique and the hybrid link-node labeling technique, are discussed and analyzed. Experimental results show that the proposed NTP-A* algorithm can significantly improve STP construction performance in large-scale road networks by a factor of 100, compared with existing algorithms.