A pattern matching language for spatio-temporal databases

Abstract

We propose a pattern matching language for spatio-temporal databases. The matching process in time dimension is based upon the evolutionary nature of time, but in spatial dimension it is based on placement, shape and sizes of regions. The concept of pattern matching introduced in this paper is independent of the choice of the underlying model for spatio-temporal databases. In particular, the pattern matching language seamlessly extends our SQL-like query language ParaSQL for spatio-temporal databases. The pattern matching language would also have application in active databases, because patterns can be used as triggers.