Conceptual Modeling for Traditional and Spatio-Temporal Applications (eBook)

Christine Parent is a full professor, at the Computer ScienceDepartment, University of Burgundy at Dijon, France. She is part-time professor at HEC INFORGE of the University of Lausanne. She got her Ph.D. from the University of Paris VI, in 1987. She has been teaching and researching in data management systems since 1970. She authored many papers in well-known journals and conferences on the development of an extended entity-relationship approach, on schema integration methodologies and spatio-temporal database modeling. She gave several tutorials on these topics and served on many program committees of international conferences. Her current research interests include a cooperative design methodology relying on the integration of existing heterogeneous databases, modeling of spatio-temporal databases, and ontologies. Stefano Spaccapietra is a full professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, where he heads the database laboratory. He has been in an academic position all along his career. He got his PhD from the university of Paris VI, in 1978, where he first had his master in computer science in 1969. He moved to the university of Burgundy, Dijon, in 1983 to occupy a professor position at the Institute of Technology. He left Dijon for EPFL in 1988. His current research interests include conceptual modelling, visual user interfaces, ontologies and location-based services. Esteban Zimányi is a Professor of Computer Science at the Engineering Department of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. He started his studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Centro América, Costa Rica. He received the BSc degree and the doctorate degree in computer science from the Faculté des Sciences at the ULB. During 1997, he was a visiting researcher at the Database Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. His current research interests include conceptual modelling, semantic web, bio-informatics, geographic information systems, and temporal databases.

Foreword 5
Foreword 6
Preface 8
Contents 11
1 Introduction 17
1.1 Space and Time 17
1.2 Why a Spatio-Temporal Database? 18
1.3 An Application Example 21
1.4 Data Modeling Requirements from the Example Application 25
1.5 Purpose of the Book 27
1.6 Outline of the Book 29
1.7 Acknowledgements 32
2 The MADS Data Model 33
2.1 On Conceptual Models 33
2.2 Thematic Data Structures 40
2.3 Spatio-Temporal Data Structures 75
2.4 Supporting Multiple Perceptions and Multiple Representations 108
2.5 Integrity Constraints 133
2.6 Conclusion 151
3 The Risks Management Application 153
3.1 Description of the Application 153
3.2 Schema of the Application 162
3.3 Conclusion 179
4 MADS Data Types 181
4.1 General Description of MADS Data Types 182
4.2 Basic Data Types 187
4.3 Tuple Types 189
4.4 Enumeration Types 189
4.5 Collection Data Types 190
4.6 Spatial Data Types 194
4.7 Topological Predicates 206
4.8 Temporal Data Types 213
4.9 Temporal Predicates 221
4.10 Perception Stamp Data Types 225
4.11 Varying Types 226
4.12 Conclusion 235
5 The MADS Query and Manipulation Languages 237
5.1 Manipulating and Querying Multi-Instantiation 240
5.2 Manipulating and Querying Multiple Representations 248
5.3 Manipulating and Querying Spatial Information 251
5.4 Manipulating and Querying Temporal Information 254
5.5 MADS Manipulation Language 258
5.6 MADS Algebra 272
5.7 Selection 280
5.8 Reduction 282
5.9 Projection 284
5.10 Extend 286
5.11 Set Operators 290
5.12 Product 295
5.13 Objectify 297
5.14 Rename 306
5.15 Conclusion 307
6 From Conceptual Design to Logical Design 309
6.1 Architecture of the Transformation Process 312
6.2 Structural Transformation Rules 314
6.3 Multi-Representation Transformation Rule 325
6.4 Spatial Transformation Rules 327
6.5 Temporal Transformation Rules 331
6.6 Transformation of Space- and Time-Varying Attributes 333
6.7 Specific Modules for Target Systems 334
6.8 Example 336
6.9 Conclusion 341
7 Related Works 343
7.1 Structural Dimension 344
7.2 Spatio-Temporal Dimension 357
7.3 Multi-Representation Dimension 381
7.4 Conclusion 396
8 Conclusion 399
8.1 Space and Time 399
8.2 Perception 400
8.3 Application Requirements 401
8.4 MADS Approach 401
8.5 Results Achieved so Far 402
8.6 Future Perspectives 404
8.7 Conclusions 411
A MADS Formalization 413
A.1 Schema 413
A.2 Object types 414
A.3 Attribute and Method Definition 418
A.4 Relationship types 422
A.5 Multi-Instantiation 428
A.6 Legal database states 429
A.7 Compatibility of Relationship Types 439
A.8 Symbols and Functions 441
B MADS Notation 443
B.1 Object and Relationship Types 443
B.2 Is-a Links and Overlapping 444
B.3 Aggregation, Transition, and Generation 445
B.4 Spatio-Temporal Modeling 446
B.5 Multi-Representation Modeling 447
References 451
Glossary 463
Index 475