ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book provides a conceptual, logical, and physical basis for the design of a temporal geographic information systems. It examines common models of spatiotemporality and considers their value for computer representation. The book discusses implementation options in terms of their associated costs and benefits, and also examines the decision of whether to adopt a given measure to individual system designers and managers. It investigates methods of accessing the space-time composite that identify which objects are needed at a given time slice without requiring reference to attribute data. The book uses four contrasting hierarchical approaches to evaluate for spatiotemporal suitability: regular partitions that clip objects, regular partitions that do not clip objects, irregular partitions, and a scheme that avoids clipping objects by projecting them as points in six-dimensional space.
