A spatiotemporal database is a database that manages both space and time information. Common examples include: * Tracking of moving objects, which typically can occupy only a single position at a given time. * A database of wireless communication networks, which may exist only for a short timespan within a geographic region. * An index of species in a given geographic region, where over time additional species may be introduced or existing species migrate or die out. * Historical tracking of plate tectonic activity. Spatiotemporal databases are an extension of

spatial database A spatial database is a general-purpose database (usually a relational database) that has been enhanced to include spatial data that represents objects defined in a geometric space, along with tools for querying and analyzing such data. Most spa ...

s and

temporal database A temporal database stores data relating to time instances. It offers temporal data types and stores information relating to past, present and future time. Temporal databases could be uni-temporal, bi-temporal or tri-temporal. More specifically th ...

s. 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 and/or * location of objects moving over invariant geometry (known variously as ''moving objects databases'' or

real-time locating system Real-time locating systems (RTLS), also known as real-time tracking systems, are used to automatically identify and track the location of objects or people in real time, usually within a building or other contained area. Wireless RTLS tags are ...

s).

Implementations

Although there exist numerous

relational database A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relatio ...

s with spatial extensions, spatiotemporal databases are not based on the

relational model The relational model (RM) is an approach to managing data using a Structure (mathematical logic), structure and language consistent with first-order logic, first-order predicate logic, first described in 1969 by English computer scientist Edgar F. ...

for practical reasons, chiefly among them that the data is multi-dimensional, capturing complex structures and behaviours. As of 2008, there are no

RDBMS A relational database is a (most commonly digital) database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relation ...

products with spatiotemporal extensions. There are some products such as the open-source

TerraLib TerraLib is an open-source GIS software library that extends object-relational DBMS technology to handle spatiotemporal data types. The library supports different DBMS, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle. Its vector data model is upwar ...

which use a

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement co ...

approach storing their data in a relational database. Unlike in the pure spatial domain, there are however no official or ''de facto'' standards for spatio-temporal data models and their querying. In general, the theory of this area is also less well-developed. Another approach is the constraint database system such as MLPQ (Management of Linear Programming Queries).

GeoMesa GeoMesa is an open-source, distributed, spatio-temporal index built on top of Bigtable-style databases using an implementation of the Geohash algorithm. Description Written in Scala, GeoMesa is capable of ingesting, indexing, and querying bill ...

is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

distributed spatiotemporal index built on top of

Bigtable Bigtable is a fully managed wide-column and key-value NoSQL database service for large analytical and operational workloads as part of the Google Cloud portfolio. History Bigtable development began in 2004.. It is now used by a number of Googl ...

-style databases using an implementation of the

Z-order_curve In mathematical analysis and computer science, functions which are Z-order, Lebesgue curve, Morton space-filling curve, Morton order or Morton code map multidimensional data to one dimension while preserving locality of the data points. It i ...

to create a multi-dimensional index combining space and time.
SpaceTime
is a commercial spatiotemporal database built on top of the proprietary multidimensional index similar to the

kd-tree In computer science, a ''k''-d tree (short for ''k-dimensional tree'') is a space-partitioning data structure for organizing points in a ''k''-dimensional space. ''k''-d trees are a useful data structure for several applications, such as search ...

family, but created using the bottom-up approach and adapted to particular space-time distribution of data.

References

External links

Organizations

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