Spatio-temporal database support for long-period scientific data

The quickly increasing number of spatio-temporal applications in fields like environmental management, geology and mobile communication is a new challenge to the development of database management systems. After discussing the related work we present concepts and implementations for the modelling and persistent management of geological long-period scientific data. The spatio-temporal classes are based upon GeoToolKit, an object-oriented 3D/4D geodatabase kernel system. Range queries on spatio-temporal objects are described in detail. We demonstrate the application of the spatio-temporal model with the balanced restoration of structural Rhine Basin evolution, an ambitious geological application. Finally, we give an outlook on our future research in the context of spatio-temporal database services.