Abstract
Distinguished from mathematical modeling of space and time, a Geographic Information Science (GIScience) approach addresses conceptualization, representation, and database modeling of reality to support spatiotemporal query and analysis in Geographic Information Systems (GISs). Much GIScience progress in space–time modeling parallels to the development of database management; however, the added complexity of geographic properties and structures presents a wide range of challenges to properly and sufficiently conceptualize space and time in geographic worlds and to implement the conceptualization in a GIS environment. The fundamental question of what constitutes a geographic object and how to recognize and handle the persistency of the same object in GIS databases is nontrivial in GIScience. Each approach to space–time modeling of geographic information has strengths and weaknesses. Similar to the handling of time in database systems, space–time modeling in GIScience employs the concepts of valid time, transaction time, and user-defined time to support historical queries about geographic worlds or database versioning. Furthermore, much research progress contributes to the ontological foundation of space–time and capture events, processes, and dynamics in geographic domains. The existing GIScience developments in space–time modeling provide a fruitful ground for the recent popularity of temporal GIS applications and subserve a sound foundation for future research directions.
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