Outline of a Formal Theory of Processes and Events, and Why GIScience Needs One
Antony Galton
In S. I. Fabrikant et al., Spatial Information Theory, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference COSIT 2015, Springer-Verlag LNCS 9368, 2015, pages 3-22.
ISBN 978-3-319-23373-4
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-23374-1_1
Abstract
It has often been noted that traditional GIScience, with its focus on
data-modelling functions such as the input, storage, retrieval,
organisation, manipulation, and presentation of data, cannot readily
accommodate the process-modelling functions such as explanation,
prediction, and simulation which it is increasingly acknowledged
should form an essential element of the GI scientist's
toolkit. Although there are doubtless many different reasons for this
seeming incompatibility, this paper singles out for consideration the
different views of time presupposed by the two kinds of function: on
the one hand, the 'frozen' historical time required by
data modelling, and on the other, the 'fluid' experiential time
required by process modelling. Whereas the former places an emphasis
on events as discrete completed wholes, the latter is concerned with on-going
continuous processes as they evolve from moment to moment. In order to
reconcile the data-modelling and process-modelling requirements of
GIScience, therefore, a formal theory of processes and events is developed,
within which their fundamental properties can be made explicit
independently of any specific implementation context, and their
relationships systematically investigated.
Full text (preprint) (The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23374-1_1)