Compare methods

	Space-Time Cube	Space-Time Hot Spot Analysis
Field	Human Geography	Spatial analysis
Family	Process / pipeline	Regression model
Year of origin	1970	1997–2015
Originator	Torsten Hägerstrand (time geography); cube popularized by Menno-Jan Kraak	Kulldorff (spatial scan statistic); operationalized for time-series bins by Esri (Emerging Hot Spot Analysis)
Type	Spatiotemporal data structure and visualization framework	Spatiotemporal cluster detection
Seminal source	Hägerstrand, T. (1970). What about people in regional science? Papers of the Regional Science Association, 24(1), 6–21.	Kulldorff, M. (1997). A spatial scan statistic. Communications in Statistics: Theory and Methods, 26(6), 1481–1496.
Aliases	Hägerstrand Space-Time Cube, Space-Time Aquarium, Spatiotemporal Cube, Time-Geographic Cube	emerging hot spot analysis, space-time cube hot spot, spatiotemporal hot spot detection, STHA
Related	4	5
Summary	The space-time cube is a framework from time geography for representing and analyzing phenomena that move and change over both space and time. Two horizontal axes carry geographic location and a vertical axis carries time, so each observation becomes a point in a three-dimensional x–y–t volume and a moving object traces a continuous 'space-time path' through the cube. Introduced conceptually by Torsten Hägerstrand in 1970 and turned into a practical analytic and cartographic tool by Menno-Jan Kraak, it underpins modern spatiotemporal hot-spot and trajectory analysis.	Space-Time Hot Spot Analysis extends the classic Getis-Ord Gi* statistic across repeated time slices organised in a space-time cube. By testing each location-time bin for statistically significant clustering of high or low values, then examining the sequence of results over time, it identifies whether clusters are new, intensifying, persistent, sporadic, or diminishing — giving analysts a dynamic picture of how hot and cold spots evolve.