A spatiotemporal database model and query language

Conventional spatial databases support efficiently a spatial management for objects. However, they manage only those that are valid at current time. Owing to this property, whenever a new value is inserted into databases, the old one should be deleted. So, it is very difficult for time varying spatial information to manage efficient historical information. To solve this problem, there is a rapid increase of interest for spatiotemporal databases. Spatiotemporal databases support historical information as well as spatial management at the same time, so that they can be used in various application areas such as geographic information system, urban plan system, and car navigation system, and so on. In this paper, we suggest a spatiotemporal data model that supports a bitemporal concept for spatial objects, and design a spatiotemporal database query language, entitled as STQL as well. When it is compared with the results of previous researches, it is the first spatiotemporal query language that supports temporal concept and spatial expression as well. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.