A Study on Representation and Application of Temporal Coordinate Reference Systems in GIS

Abstract

The spatio-temporal coordinate reference system is the measurement datum in navigation, surveying and mapping, and it is also one of the description parts of multi-granularity spatiotemporal objects in pan-spatial information system (PSIS). Up to now, almost none of temporal coordinate reference systems (temporal CRSs) have been described universally in traditional GIS in contrast with spatial CRSs. This paper first introduces the background of PSIS, analyzes existing description methods of time, and proposes a universal method for the representation of temporal CRSs based on common time systems and their conversion. Then a user-defined creation method for a temporal CRS is presented, the conversion process is illustrated, and the module design in the system is elaborated. Finally, an experiment is conducted on the creation, display and conversion of the temporal CRSs. Its result demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed methods.