Abstract：Along with the humanistic and post-modernistic trend of thought, Western human geography has paid much attention to substantial issues about human being as well as its society. Social factors such as culture, institute, psychology, rather than those related to physical and economic environment, are gradually becoming the main focus of researches on human geographic phenomenon. Accordingly, studies of urban space have turned their perspectives from physical to social and behavioral space. Meanwhile, the study object has also emphasized much more on social significance of improving daily life instead of economic growth. Therein, travel-activity behaviors as well as urban activity system, which provide a new approach to urban life, began to draw more and more research interest in related fields of urban study.
Travel-activity based research traces back to Chapin's urban activity system. It refers to urban residents' daily activities, such as commuting, shopping etc., spaces where these take place constitutes so-called "urban travel-activity space system". Such concepts comprise urban activities and their relationships, thus help to not only understand mutuality of different parts in the city, but also make sound planning of urban facilities to improve urban life. Especially, this approach has contributed much to the development of urban transportation. Travel is regarded as the derived demand of activity. Besides, urban transportation problems can be addressed from both macro space and micro individual behavior and from both time and space dimensions.
This paper tries to propose a research framework of urban space based on travel-activity. In the new framework, the interaction between travel-activity behavior and urban space is the research focus. Studies of urban space stress on institutional analysis of physical and functional space, while studies of residents' behavior draw more on choice behavior in the socio-economic context. Such research tries to derive ideal behavior and urban space from realistic ones by understanding their connection mechanism, and also to make clear the rule of urban space change on the reflection on individual and household level. To implement this very framework, multiple disciplines as well as different methods and technologies are needed.
