Chapter 1: Introduction

Abstract

Time and space are ubiquitous aspects of reality. It is hard to imagine a day in our life going by without making use of temporal and spatial information. In today's digital world, there is hardly any information system where time, space or both need not be present as first-class concepts in order to effectively support the targeted application. The reader is invited to consider the information systems of such varied organizations as financial institutions, public administrations, factories, hospitals, environmental agencies, entertainment industries, the military, space agencies, schools or universities, to name a few.