A spatiotemporal database is a database that manages both space and time information. Common examples include:

• Tracking of moving objects, which typically can occupy only a single position at a given time.
• A database of wireless communication networks, which may exist only for a short timespan within a geographic region.
• An index of species in a given geographic region, where over time additional species may be introduced or existing species migrate or die out.
• Historical tracking of plate tectonic activity.

Spatiotemporal databases are an extension of spatial databases

Spatial Database

A spatial database is a database that is optimized to store and query data that is related to objects in space, including points, lines and polygons. While typical databases can understand various numeric and character types of data, additional functionality needs to be added for databases to...

. A spatiotemporal database embodies spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal database concepts, and captures spatial and temporal aspects of data and deals with

• geometry changing over time and/or
• location of objects moving over invariant geometry.

Organizations

• http://vldb.org (Very Large Databases)
• http://www.dexa.org (Database and Expert Systems Applications)

See also

• Data warehouse
  Data warehouse
  In computing, a data warehouse is a database used for reporting and analysis. The data stored in the warehouse is uploaded from the operational systems. The data may pass through an operational data store for additional operations before it is used in the DW for reporting.A data warehouse...
  
  
• Data mining
  Data mining
  Data mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...
  
  , Database mining, Data farming
  Data farming
  Data Farming is the process of using a high performance computer or computing grid to run a simulation thousands or millions of times across a large parameter and value space...
  
  
• Locating engine
  Locating engine
  A locating engine is the computational engine behind real-time locating systems and navigation support system. A locating engine combines algorithms of geometry or topography with algorithms of filtering to calculate a best estimate for objects or people, and to do so in real-time...