A data model for regions with indeterminate boundaries

A data model for regions with indeterminate boundaries

Most of spatial phenomena like natural vegetation units and land use areas constantly change over time and have uncertainty spatial extents. Till now, a considerable number of data models have been proposed for spatial objects with sharp boundaries as well as with indeterminate boundaries. However, they mainly concern space and time or space and fuzziness and not yet integrate them into a single unified framework. This paper introduces a formal definition of the conceptual fuzzy spatiotemporal data model, called FSTDM for fuzzy regions based on fuzzy set theory. We also contribute a method of manipulating queries with the presence of both temporal predicate and fuzzy spatial predicate in the condition clause efficiently. We then implement a prototype system. Through the experimental results, we prove that our work can be used to build a specialized system such as GIS, spatial database, and so on.