Inthisstudy,weadoptanimprovedBayesianapproachbasedonfree-knotB-splinebasestostudythespatialandtemporaldistributionoftheb-value.SynthetictestsshowthattheimprovedBayesianapproachhasasuperiorperformancecomparedtotheBayesianapproachaswellasthewidelyusedmaximumlikelihoodestimation(MLE)methodinfittingtherealvariationofb-values.WethenapplytheimprovedBayesianapproachtoNorthChinaandfindthattheb-valuehasaclearrelevancetoseismicity.Temporalchangesofb-valuesarealsoinvestigatedintwospecificareasofNorthChina.Weinterpretsharpdecreasesintheb-valuesasusefulmessagesinearthquakehazardanalysis.
