For cartographic study, time has two meanings: one is the time that the event happened or lasted in the real world; while the other one is the time when the changes are recorded in the database system. Generally, the data collection should be started at the very moment that the event begins, and finished when the event ends. Temporal boundary, which is used to describe the temporal structure and separation of object versions, is also demonstrated in the paper of Langran et al. 1988.
For some real-time applications, the time difference between the event happen and the corresponding data is collected can cause problems, such as fire monitoring systems. If a fire disaster is detected but recorded several hours later, the lost will be unpredictable. Moreover, since database system is not designed in real-time, the event updates cannot be reflected in our GIS. Here are two challenges: first, how to record event in real-time as accuracy guarantee, and how to update the events in real-time with clear temporal boundary. Real-time technologies are integrated in temporal GIS, as a kind of solution to these two challenges.
In 2010, Mike Dana has given a very good presentation about real-time GIS database.
In their presentation, they present real-time ArcMap which can update and visualize the changes of geospatial information. By utilizing the real-time design, ArcMap can become a good platform for crisis command and mobile resource deployment.
–cyberinfrastructrue
Tags: Database, Temporal GIS