How to Describe and Show Dynamics of Urban Fabric: Cartography and Chronometry?

The requirements for understanding the dynamics of urban fabric over long time spans are to be able to analyze situations at different times as well as the process of transformation between these states. To meet this dual objective, the historical data thus needs to be modeled by deconstructing their spatio-temporal properties. The modeling proposed in this article takes a systemic approach and is based on the dual notion of simple objects and complex objects. On this principle, implementing this model in a GIS provides an original means of processing the information: the results of the different analyses – spatial and/or temporal – lead to a true interpretation of the urban dynamics. However, the specificity of the spatio-temporal framework requires appropriate representation, i.e. not only spatial but also covering the temporal dimension. But while cartography can represent the spatial context of geo-historical phenomena, no temporal equivalent exists. The term “chronography”, expressing the framework of the architecture of time, has been formulated to fill this gap