One challenging problem is the representation of three-dimensional datasets that vary with time. These datasets can be thought of as a cloud of points that gradually deforms. However, point-wise variations lack information about the overall deformation pattern, and, more importantly, about the extreme deformation locations inside the cloud. This present article applies a technique in computational mechanics to derive the strain-rate state of a time-dependent and three-dimensional data distribution, by which one can characterize its main trends of shift. Indeed, the tensorial analysis methodology is able to determine the global deformation rates in the entire dataset. With the use of this technique, one can characterize the significant fluctuations in a reduced multivariate description of an urban system and identify the possible causes of those changes: calculating the strain-rate state of a PCA-based multivariate description of an urban system, we are able to describe the clustering and divergence patterns between the districts of a city and to characterize the temporal rate in which those variations happen.
Commentary: Deformation Pattern of the Northern Sector of the Malta Escarpment (Offshore SE Sicily, Italy): Fault Dimension, Slip Prediction, and Seismotectonic Implications
