ABSTRACT
A reasonable approach is to extend the popular strategy of segregating the aspatial (attribute) from the spatial (geometric and topological) data, keeping spatial data in special structures while storing attribute information in a relational database. The relational database provides several other options; it can generate new versions of tables, tuples, or attributes to reflect new object versions. The temporal database literature calls this procedure ‘versioning’. This chapter describes about relation-level versioning, tuple-level versioning, and attribute-level versioning. A tuple-level versioning method provides temporal capabilities without affecting present-tense performance. Information systems can model temporality in two ways, namely process modelling and time modelling. The chapter explains the subject of operations and constraints on temporal data. As organizations implement temporal systems, they will be forced to reflect both on their data and on their role as guardians of the past.
