Spatiotemporal database

A spatiotemporal database is a system that manages both space and time information, such as biological Databases, wireless communication networks, and processing of objects with uncertainty.

Basically, spatiotemporal databases are a generalization of spatial databases, which include features of variating coordinates in space, as e.g. with plate tectonics, or of otherwise temporal variation of spatial data, e.g. of moving objects, residing temporally in spatially defined locations.

A spatiotemporal database embodies spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal database concepts, and captures spatial and temporal aspects of data and deals with
* geometry changing over time. [ [http://wis.cs.ucla.edu/~cchen/thesis.ps Data Models and Query Languages of Spatio-Temporal Information ] ]

or
* location of objects moving over invariant geometry. [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTLS Real-time locating systems ] ]

Topics of research are the Analysis & Retrieval of spatial and spatiotemporal data.

Organizations

*http://vldb.org (Very Large Databases)
*http://www.dexa.org (Database and Expert Systems Applications)

Relevant terms that may be incorporated in the Analysis & Retrieval of spatial and spatiotemporal data:
* Data warehouse
* Data mining, Database mining, Data farming
* Locating engine

References