Continuum: a spatiotemporal data model to represent and qualify filiation relationships

This work introduces an ontology-based spatio-temporal data model to represent entities evolving in space and time. A dynamic phenomenon generates a complex relationship network between the entities involved in the process. At the abstract level, the relationships can be identity or topological filiations. The existence of an identity filiation depends on whether the object changes its identity or not. On the other hand, topological filiations are based exclusively on the spatial component, like in the case of growth, reduction, merging or splitting. When combining identity and topological filiations, six filiation relationships are obtained, forming a second abstract level. Upper-level filiation relationships provide better semantic vocabulary to describe the modeled phenomena, thus allowing the implementation of spatial, temporal and identity constraints. In this paper, we present a method based on identity and topological filiation relationships, to improve the capabilities of standard knowledge bases using Semantic Web technologies. Our method enables us to check the consistency of spatio-temporal and semantic data. An example is given in the field of urban growth to show the capabilities of the model.