A Methodology and a Tool for Spatiotemporal Database Design

1. SUMMARY This paper concerns a methodology and its supporting prototype tool for database design of spatiotemporal applications. The methodology focuses on the main phases of conceptual and logical modeling with each phase being accompanied by models specifically constructed to handle spatiotemporal peculiarities. A database design tool that guides the designer through the conceptual and logical modeling as well as implementation, while dealing with applications involving space and time, is further presented. Starting from the conceptual modeling phase, the tool provides a specific environment to support the SpatioTemporal Entity-Relationship (STER) model, an extension of the Entity-Relationship model, towards the spatial and temporal dimension. An intermediate representation phase, namely, the logical phase, follows; in this, conceptual schemata are mapped into maps and relations, using an extension of the relational model, the SpatioTemporal Relational model (STR). Translation rules from conceptual to logical schemata are given. The resulted logical schemata are further translated into different underlying target DBMSs with spatial support; Oracle and the Spatial Data Option are used as a prototype. The STER and STR models, as well as the proposed tool are tested with extended examples from real applications.