Space-Time Cube
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.
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Sources
- Hägerstrand, T. (1970). What about people in regional science? Papers of the Regional Science Association, 24(1), 6–21. DOI: 10.1007/BF01936872 ↗
- Kraak, M.-J., & Ormeling, F. J. (2010). Cartography: Visualization of Geospatial Data (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN: 9780273722793
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Space-Time Cube for Spatiotemporal Analysis and Visualization. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/human-geography/space-time-cube
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- Accessibility AnalysisHuman Geography↔ compare
- Gravity Model of MigrationHuman Geography↔ compare
- Space-Time Hot Spot AnalysisSpatial analysis↔ compare
- Space-Time Kernel Density EstimationSpatial analysis↔ compare