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INTRODUCTION
Time, a phenomenon that can be perceived only by its effects, has intrigued and
preoccupied philosophers through the ages. Time is commonly viewed as a line
without endpoints that stretches infinitely into the past and the future, although
NICHOLAS R CHRISMAN is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, University of
Washington. GAIL LANGRAN is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography, University of
Washington. T h e thoughts presented here were influenced by the perceptive comments of Ric Vrana,
Morgan Thomas and Tim Nyerges. Partial funding was provided by the University of Washington
Graduate School Research Fund. MS submitted May 1988; accepted August 1988
CARTOGRAPHICA Vol 25 No 3 1988 pp 1-14
Soils data
Topographic map
U.S. Census data
Raster data
Weather reports
Flood tables
Tide tables
Airline schedules
DATA
IN
VARIOUS
Fixed
Controlled
Measured
Time
Time
Time
Time
Location
Location
Theme
Location
Theme
Theme
Location
Location
Time
Time
Location
Theme
Location
Location
Theme
Theme
Theme
Theme
Time
Time
coherent arguments exist for such alternate topologies as multiple parallel lines,
tree structures, circularity, discreteness, and nonexistence (Rescher and Urquhart
1971 and Newton-Smith 1980 provide excellent discussions of this topic). Cartog
raphers, however, can sidestep debates on what time is, and instead focus on how
best to represent its effects.
Temporal Data Processing in Cartography
The cartographic literature includes one previous attempt to structure spatiotem
poral data. In 1978, Basoglu and Morrison designed a data structure to retrieve
the county boundaries of a given state for any date since that state achieved
statehood. T h e structure is overtly hierarchical, as shown in Figure 1. States own
counties, and counties own boundary records. Each boundary record holds a line
segment, and the time interval during which that segment formed part of that
county's boundary. This hierarchical structure cannot recognize that one line
segment might no longer bound a particular county, but remain in use as the
boundary of a different county through historical subdivision. In addition, the
structure cannot produce an answer to the query "What boundaries changed
between two given dates?" T h e structure's fundamental weakness, however, is
that it cannot ensure that all mapped space belongs to some county at all possible
times. This paper provides some solutions to these problems.
Aspatial Temporal Data Processing
The database systems literature has witnessed an explosion of publications con
cerning temporal and historical databases. With few exceptions, however, re
search has focused on aspatial applications. Nonetheless, a review of this literature
is instructive.
The goal of a temporal database is to make the time dimension accessible to
users. Clifford and Warren (1983) describe such a database as "a model of the
dynamically changing world," in which data are never 'forgotten.' T o design such
a database, one must develop procedures by which data are superseded but never
deleted, thereby avoiding what Copeland ( 1982) has termed "the agony of delete."
Virtually all temporal database research builds on the relational database
model. T h e relational model stores information in matrices called tables. Each
entity is represented by a matrix row, called a tuple; matrix columns represent
entity attributes. When temporal information is modeled in this way, the design-
States
FIGURE 1. Morrison and Basoglu's (1978) hierarchical representation of U.S. county boundary changes.
er's dilemma is whether to propagate new database versions at the table, tuple, or
attribute level. T h e earliest work generated a new version of a table each time one
of its cells changed; however, researchers quickly progressed to the more spaceefficient approaches of tuple- and attribute-level versioning.
The relative merits of tuple- and attribute-level versioning are best summa
rized as a tradeoff between processing speed and storage. T o generate a complete
new tuple version each time an attribute changes means that redundant informa
tion is stored. Conversely, to store multiple attribute versions within a tuple
violates the relational model's stricture against variable-length fields. Presently,
several different tuple- and attribute-level versioning methods have been pro
posed but only one method has been implemented experimentally (Ahn and
Snodgrass 1986); none is used operationally.
There is little doubt that aspatial temporal database methods will play a role in
spatiotemporal GIS; however, the treatment of spatial data is a problem that
remains to be addressed by cartographers. A fundamental problem is how to
conceptualize the geographic sequences we will represent.
COMPONENTS OF CARTOGRAPHIC TIME
1982
1984
1987
Aside from the obvious interrelationships between object versions and map
states, the succession of each object's versions and mutations (or one map's states
and events) has an internal structure. A version or state can be seen as a line
segment that represents the duration of a condition, while a mutation or event is a
point that terminates that condition and begins the next, forming a zerodimensional boundary between two one-dimensional 'regions.' Thus, temporal
units that share a boundary can be considered contiguous neighbors in time
(Figure 3). Finally, convention allows us to draw spatial boundaries firmly, regard
less of whether they represent gradual transition zones or formal lines of de
marcation. While temporal boundaries are, in reality, no more discrete than are
spatial boundaries, sharp lines also prove useful in representing temporal bound
aries.
Table 2 summarizes some analogies between space and time, building on
those offered by Parkes and Thrift (1980).
Table 2. PARALLELS IN SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL STRUCTURE
Overall configuration
Configurations separated by ...
Regular sampling units
Meaningful units
Subdivisions separated by ...
Size measured by ...
Position described by ...
Contiguous neighbors are ...
Maximum number of contiguous neighbors
Cartographic
Space
Cartographic
Time
map
sheet lines
cells
objects
boundaries
length, area
coordinates
adjacent objects
infinite
state
events
hours, days, decades, etc.
versions
mutations
duration
date
previous and next manifestations
two
FIGURE 4. Time-dice snapshots representing urban expansion into a rural area. Intervals between time slices are not
necessarily equal.
Standing back from the time line and examining time-slice snapshots is not the
only way to view geographic temporality. Alternately, we can stand directly upon
the time line and look up or down it into the past or future. From this perspective,
a more versatile means of representing the time slices is possible. We place an
opaque base map at To to define the data's original state. At appropriate (and not
necessarily even) intervals, we interject a clear overlay and record changes that
have occurred since the previous update. When used this way, the overlays are
events that bound the map's states, while the marks on the overlays are mutations
that bound object versions.
Now from a point on the time line looking backward into the past, we see one
or more transparent overlays that amend the base map, which stands at the far end
of the time line. By backing away from this overlaid time series, as we did to view
the snapshot time series, we would see profiles of the base map at one end, a final
overlay at the other end, and intermediate overlays interspersed along the line
(Figure 5). Eventually, spatial change is comprehensive and the mutations
recorded on the overlays supersede the entire base map.
This image of time is not unlike a Minkowski diagram in its spatialization of
time. It is also reminiscent of Rucker's ( 1984) vision of reality as a time-space cube,
and Hagerstrand's (1974) time-space 'aquariums,' through which people and
objects trace paths of a given life span. Rucker argues that the passage of time is an
illusion; all of space/time is present at any given moment. This conceptualization is
a reasonable model for a temporal geographic information system, in which all
states of the study area are equally accessible to the analyst. Recently, Szeg (1987)
has developed Hagerstrand's time geography diagrams into a model of
spatiotemporality. While philosophically interesting, this model offers little to the
practical matter of digital representation.
To use the base map/overlay construct, a new overlay would be created for
each database update session to represent transactions in database time. World
time would be expressed using dates or color codes on the overlay's change
notations. Thus, neighbors in database time are located on adjacent overlays while
neighbors in world time are not, unless both times are effectively synchronized.
The base map/overlay construct can answer queries on both states and
versions:
10
- To find "what was the data state at Tit" merge the base map at To with the
overlays at T, to Tt.
To find "what has changed between T\ and 7}," create a composite overlay T;... 7}
by merging the overlays from Tt+1 to 2}.
A FRAMEWORK F O R T E M P O R A L G E O G R A P H I C I N F O R M A T I O N
11
- To find "what versions has this object had and when did it mutate?" check each
overlay for amendments in that object's location.
- To compute the frequency of change, accumulate the number of mutations at
each location.
Because it represents the boundaries of both states and versions, the base
map/overlap construct is superior to snapshots. Just as the astructural style of
snapshots shares the spaghetti structure's problems, the temporal structure of the
overlays mimics the topological structure's assets.
Temporal structure is evident. Temporal neighbors (i.e., a version's previous or
next forms) are located by finding the mutation that separates them.
Errors can be trapped because improbable events can be prohibited.
Minimal redundancy. Use of storage is spartan; each object version is stored
only once.
IMAGES OF CARTOGRAPHIC TIME: SPACE-TIME COMPOSITE
The final image of time is a variation on the base map/overlay theme. Rather than
retaining change notations on separate overlays, the base map becomes a
temporal composite built from accumulated geometric changes. Each change
causes the changed portion of the coverage to break from its parent object to
become a discrete object with its own distinct history. In other words, the
representation decomposes over time into increasingly smaller fragments the
coverage's greatest common spatiotemporal units each of which references a
distinct temporal attribute set (Figure 6). This method of temporal decomposition
was originally suggested by Chrisman (1983). T h e spatiotemporal units created by
this intersection should be called greatest common units to correct the misleading
terminology promulgated by Peucker and Chrisman (1975) for a related case.
The mechanics of space-time compositing begin with a base map that repre
sents a region's geometry and spatial topology at some starting time. An overlay is
generated during each database update session, as described previously for the
base map/overlay model. Once accepted for permanent inclusion, the overlay is
incorporated into the system using the same intersection procedure currently
used for polygon overlay (Dougenik 1980). New nodes and chains are added to
the historical accumulation, forming new polygons that have attribute histories
distinct from those of their neighbors. Each unit's attribute history is represented
by an ordered list of records. A record contains an attribute set and the database
and world-time intervals during which that attribute set was valid. While this
temporal attribute concept seems logical, it is difficult to implement in current
relational database software, because the temporal ranges create a host of variable
length anomalies from the 'normal form'.
Accessing temporal information stored in the space-time composite is con
ceptually straightforward. T o compile a single time slice from the composite, one
has only to 'walk' the attribute history list of each polygon to locate the attribute
that was current at the desired time slice. If polygon neighbors in the time slice
share a single attribute, the chain that separates them is dropped.
12
FIGURE 6. A space-time composite of urban encroachment. Each polygon has an attribute history distinct from that
of its neighbors.
DISCUSSION
Both the base map/overlay and space-time intersection are reasonable models
upon which to base a spatiotemporal data-structuring methodology. However,
because the base map/overlay model is not space filling, it is more prone to error
unless an alternate way of checking for internal consistency can be devised.
Additionally, no simple means of structuring base map/overlay data is evident
(which is not to say that a means does not exist). The arguments for retaining
separate overlays vs. storing a composite follow those of retaining categorical
coverages on separate overlays vs. merging them into one coverage integrated by
an overlay processor. A composite incurs preprocessing costs and offers direct
response to any query, while separate overlays must invoke an overlay processor
to respond to any query. In addition, a composite minimizes polygon-processing
error, while separate overlays permit greater flexibility in modeling the error
inherent in each overlay.
For both the base map/overlay and the space-time composite models, performance efficiency might be improved by maintaining a current data state
separately from previous states, especially when queries on the current state are
more frequent than are forays into the past. Conversely, a temporal GIS used by
historians or archeologists might maintain the oldest data separately on the
assumption that it will be accessed and altered most often. In either case, the
temporal partitioning would prevent the longitudinal data from adversely affect-
13
ing the most frequent operations. Aspatial methods of temporal partitioning are
discussed by Ahn and Snodgrass ( 1986), Ferg ( 1985), Ariav ( 1986), and Lum et al.
(1984). Further performance improvements will be possible through indexing
schemes. Inspiration for such schemes can be found in persistent data structures
(Sarnak and Tarjan 1986) and nondestructive data structures designed for writeonce-read-many-times (WORM) optical storage (e.g., Rathmann 1984).
In operation, both database time and world time will be important for
different purposes. T h e composite approach can accommodate two time axes if its
attribute database is structured appropriately. Even with skilled design, however,
database records with a temporal range strain the capability of most current
database systems, and two such axes will add further complications.
Y
CONCLUSION
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