S. Shumilov and J. Siebeck
Institute for Computer Science III
University of Bonn, Germany
{shumilov,siebeck}@cs.uni-bonn.de
The management of time-dependent geometries, an important application of environmental sciences, is a challenge for the database community. On the one hand, the enormous growth of raw data caused by the introduction of the fourth dimension requires a maximally compact storage of changing objects. On the other hand, data analysis demands interactive query processing facilities of the database system which range from selections for online animation with different levels of detail to complex set-based operations such as spatio-temporal joins. New techniques are required which can provide a reasonable compromise between the compact storage and efficient retrieval of spatio-temporal objects. In this paper we present an extension of GEOTOOLKIT--our object-oriented database kernel system for managing 3D-geometries--which is intended to support spatio-temporal (4D) objects. We discuss different techniques which provide efficient storage for geologically defined 4D-geometries. The extensions have been applied to manage spatio-temporal data utilized in GOCAD, a software system for geological modelling.
Keywords: geo-database, database kernel system, spatio-temporal data, 3D/4D geo-information system