A combination of genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization (PSO) for vehicle routing problems with time windows (VRPTW) is proposed in this paper. The improvements of the proposed algorithm include: using the particle real number encoding method to decode the route to alleviate the computation burden, applying a linear decreasing function based on the number of the iterations to provide balance between global and local exploration abilities, and integrating with the crossover operator of genetic algorithm to avoid the premature convergence and the local minimum. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is not only more efficient and competitive with other published results but can also obtain more optimal solutions for solving the VRPTW issue. One new well-known solution for this benchmark problem is also outlined in the following.

To capture both global stationarity and spatiotemporal non-stationarity, a novel mixed geographically and temporally weighted regression (MGTWR) model accounting for global and local effects in both space and time is presented. Since the constant and spatial-temporal varying coefficients could not be estimated in one step, a two-stage least squares estimation is introduced to calibrate the model. Both simulations and real-world datasets are used to test and verify the performance of the proposed MGTWR model. Additionally, an Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) is adopted as a key model fitting diagnostic. The experiments demonstrate that the MGTWR model yields more accurate results than do traditional spatially weighted regression models. For instance, the MGTWR model decreased AIC value by 2.7066, 36.368 and 112.812 with respect to those of the mixed geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model and by 45.5628, −38.774 and 35.656 with respect to those of the geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) model for the three simulation datasets. Moreover, compared to the MGWR and GTWR models, the MGTWR model obtained the lowest AIC value and mean square error (MSE) and the highest coefficient of determination (R²) and adjusted coefficient of determination (R²_adj). In addition, our experiments proved the existence of both global stationarity and spatiotemporal non-stationarity, as well as the practical ability of the proposed method.

Automatically acquiring comprehensive, accurate, and real-time mapping information and translating this information into digital maps are challenging problems. Traditional methods are time consuming and costly because they require expensive field surveying and labor-intensive post-processing. Recently, the ubiquitous use of positioning technology in vehicles and other devices has produced massive amounts of trajectory data, which provide new opportunities for digital map production and updating. This paper presents an automatic method for producing road networks from raw vehicle global positioning system (GPS) trajectory data. First, raw GPS positioning data are processed to remove noise using a newly proposed algorithm employing flexible spatial, temporal, and logical constraint rules. Then, a new road network construction algorithm is used to incrementally merge trajectories into a directed graph representing a digital map. Furthermore, the average road traffic volume and speed are calculated and assigned to corresponding road segments. To evaluate the performance of the method, an experiment was conducted using 5.76 million trajectory data points from 200 taxis. The result was qualitatively compared with OpenStreetMap and quantitatively compared with two existing methods based on the F-score. The findings show that our method can automatically generate a road network representing a digital map.

Previous studies have demonstrated that non-Euclidean distance metrics can improve model fit in the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. However, the GWR model often considers spatial nonstationarity and does not address variations in local temporal issues. Therefore, this paper explores a geographically temporal weighted regression (GTWR) approach that accounts for both spatial and temporal nonstationarity simultaneously to estimate house prices based on travel time distance metrics. Using house price data collected between 1980 and 2016, the house price response and explanatory variables are then modeled using both the GWR and the GTWR approaches. Comparing the GWR model with Euclidean and travel distance metrics, the GTWR model with travel distance obtains the highest value for the coefficient of determination ( $R^2$ ) and the lowest values for the Akaike information criterion (AIC). The results show that the GTWR model provides a relatively high goodness of fit and sufficient space-time explanatory power with non-Euclidean distance metrics. The results of this study can be used to formulate more effective policies for real estate management.

Remote sensing images of nighttime lights (NTL) were successfully used at global and regional scales for various applications, including studies on population, politics, economics, and environmental protection. The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership with the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS) NTL data has the advantages of high temporal resolution, long coverage time series, and wide spatial range. The spatial resolution of the monthly and annual composite data of NPP-VIIRS NTL is only 500 m, which hinders studies requiring higher resolution. We propose a multi-source spatial variable and Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR)-based method to achieve the downscaling of NPP-VIIRS NTL data. An MGWR downscaling framework was implemented to obtain NTL data at 120 m resolution based on auxiliary data representing socioeconomic or physical geographic attributes. The downscaled NTL data were validated against LuoJia1-01 imagery based on the coefficient of determination (R²) and the root-mean-square error (RMSE). The results suggested that the spatial resolution of the data was enhanced after downscaling, and the MGWR-based downscaling results demonstrated higher R² (R² = 0.9141) and lower RMSE than those of Geographically Weighted Regression and Random Forest-based algorithms. Additionally, MGWR can reveal the different relationships between multiple auxiliary and NTL data. Therefore, this study demonstrates that the spatial resolution of NPP-VIIRS NTL data is improved from 500 m to 120 m upon downscaling, thereby facilitating NTL-based applications.

Geographically weighted regression (GWR) is an effective method for detecting spatial non-stationary features based on the hypothesis of proximity correlation. In reality, especially in the social and economic fields, research objects not only have spatial non-stationary characteristics, but also spatial discrete heterogeneity characteristics. Therefore, how to improve the accuracy of GWR estimation in this case is worth studying. In this paper, a regionally geographically weighted regression (RGWR) is proposed. Using incoming dummy variables, the zoning discrimination is added to the spatial kernel function of GWR, the spatial kernel function is modified, the spatial weight is optimized, and the influence of “near heterogeneous” observation points is reduced. In this paper, the residential sale price in Wuhan City is taken as an example in the analysis of three aspects: model performance, fitting effect and influencing factors. The results show that the introduction of a zoning dummy variables can significantly improve the model accuracy of a fixed bandwidth and adaptive bandwidth. Under a fixed bandwidth, compared with the GWR model, RGWR increases R² and R²adj from 0.6776 and 0.6732 to 0.777 and 0.7746, respectively, and the Akaike information criterion, corrected (AICc) standard decreases by 37.4006 compared with GWR, which proves the effectiveness of the method.