Spatio Temporal Database Management

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Workshop on Spatio-Temporal Database Management Systems, STDBM'99, held in Edinburgh, UK, in September 1999 as a satelite event of VLDB'99. The 13 revised full papers presented were carefully selected from 30 papers submitted. The book offers topical sections on understanding and manipulating spatio-temporal data; integration, exchange, and visualization; query processing; index evaluation; and constraints and dependencies.

A summary of research carried out in the CHOROCHRONOS Project, established as an EC-funded Training and Mobility Research Network with the objective of studying the design, implementation, and application of spatio-temporal database management systems. The nine coherent chapters by leading research groups are written in a tutorial style, making the research contributions of the project accessible to a wider audience interested in spatio-temporal information processing. Following an introductory overview, the book presents chapters on ontologies for spatio-temporal databases, conceptual models, spatio-temporal models and languages, access methods and query processing, architectures and implementation of spatio-temporal DBMS, interactive spatio-temporal documents, and future perspectives.

A review of relational concepts -- An overview of Tutorial D -- Time and the database -- What is the problem? -- Intervals -- Operators on intervals -- The EXPAND and COLLAPSE operators -- The PACK and UNPACK operators -- Generalizing the relational operators -- Database design -- Integrity constraints 1 : candidate keys and related constraints -- Integrity constraints 2 : general constraints -- Database queries -- Database updates -- Stated times and logged times -- Point and interval types revisited.

Time and Relational Theory provides an in-depth description of temporal database systems, which provide special facilities for storing, querying, and updating historical and future data. Traditionally, database management systems provide little or no special support for temporal data at all. This situation is changing because: Cheap storage enables retention of large volumes of historical data in data warehouses Users are now faced with temporal data problems, and need solutions Temporal features have recently been incorporated into the SQL standard, and vendors have begun to add temporal support to their DBMS products Based on the groundbreaking text Temporal Data & the Relational Model (Morgan Kaufmann, 2002) and new research led by the authors, Time and Relational Theory is the only book to offer a complete overview of the functionality of a temporal DBMS. Expert authors Nikos Lorentzos, Hugh Darwen, and Chris Date describe an approach to temporal database management that is firmly rooted in classical relational theory and will stand the test of time. This book covers the SQL:2011 temporal extensions in depth and identifies and discusses the temporal functionality still missing from SQL. Understand how the relational model provides an ideal basis for taming the complexities of temporal databases Learn how to analyze and evaluate commercial temporal products with this timely and important information Be able to use sound principles in designing and using temporal databases Understand the temporal support recently added to SQL with coverage of the new SQL features in this unique, accurate, and authoritative reference Appreciate the benefits of a truly relational approach to the problem with this clear, user friendly presentation

Spatio-Temporal Databases explores recent trends in flexible querying and reasoning about time- and space-related information in databases. It shows how flexible querying enhances standard querying expressiveness in many different ways, with the aim of facilitating extraction of relevant data and information. Flexible spatial and temporal reasoning denotes qualitative reasoning about dynamic changes in the spatial domain, characterized by imprecision or uncertainty (or both). Many of the contributions focus on GIS, while some others are more general, or focus on related application fields, presenting theoretical viewpoints and techniques that are inspiring or can be adapted for GIS. The first part bundles the contributions on advances at the theoretical level, also discussing examples and opening further perspectives. The second part presents contributions on well-developed applications. The authors explain how to handle imprecision and uncertainty, demonstrating how advanced techniques can help to solve diverse problems related to GIS.

Spatio-Temporal Databases explores recent trends in flexible querying and reasoning about time- and space-related information in databases. It shows how flexible querying enhances standard querying expressiveness in many different ways, with the aim of facilitating extraction of relevant data and information. Flexible spatial and temporal reasoning denotes qualitative reasoning about dynamic changes in the spatial domain, characterized by imprecision or uncertainty (or both). Many of the contributions focus on GIS, while some others are more general, or focus on related application fields, presenting theoretical viewpoints and techniques that are inspiring or can be adapted for GIS. The first part bundles the contributions on advances at the theoretical level, also discussing examples and opening further perspectives. The second part presents contributions on well-developed applications. The authors explain how to handle imprecision and uncertainty, demonstrating how advanced techniques can help to solve diverse problems related to GIS.

The book deals with the integration of temporal information in Geographic Information Systems. The main purpose of an historical or time-integrative GIS is to reproduce spatio- temporal processes or sequents of events in the real world in the form of a model. The model thus making them accessible for spatial query, analysis and visualization. This volume reflects both theoretical thoughts on the interrelations of space and time, as well as practical examples taken from various fields of application (e.g. business data warehousing, demographics, history and spatial analysis).