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ABSTRACT
Geographic processes are dynamic, wherein geographical entities and phenomena change over time and are characterized by vagueness. However, most studies on geographic processes employ precise expression methods to describe and express the changing trajectories of geographical entities and phenomena, ignoring vagueness. This strategy fails to facilitate the objective description and expression of the entire process and may affect analysis results. Herein, a time feature expression model of vague geographic processes is established based on the interval type-2 fuzzy set theory to describe and express the vague time characteristics comprising three model stages that reflect the geographic process evolution sequence: production (beginning), development, and extinction (end). Finally, the practicability of the proposed model is verified using two case studies, i.e. the landing process of typhoon ‘Lekima’ and the desert greening process in Xinjiang, China.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Author contributions
Yue Yin contributed to the concept of the current research, formulated the overarching research goals, conducted the experiment, and wrote the manuscript. Yufeng He translated the manuscript and completed the revisions. Yizhe Feng collected data, formatted the manuscript, and corrected any errors observed. Xueying Zhang provided funding and provided professional comments. Yehua Sheng provided funding, directed the entire process, and was responsible for the quality audit of the manuscript.
Data availability statement
All data used in this study are accessible online from https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The code of this study is openly available on ‘figshare’ at https://figshare.com/s/4c64213b60d747d08d10.