Developments in spatio-temporal query languages

Integrating spatio-temporal data as abstract data types into already existing data models is a promising approach to creating spatio-temporal query languages. In this context, an important new class of queries can be identified which is concerned with developments of spatial objects over time, that is, queries ask especially for changes in spatial relationships. Based on a definition of the notion of spatio-temporal predicate we provide a framework which allows to build more and more complex predicates starting with a small set of elementary ones. These predicates can be well used to characterize developments. We show how these concepts can be realized within the relational data model. In particular, we demonstrate how SQL can be extended to enable the querying of developments.