A spatiotemporal database is a database that manages both space and time information. Common examples include:
At first glance, spatiotemporal databases are an extension of spatial databases. A spatiotemporal database embodies spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal database concepts, and captures spatial and temporal aspects of data and deals with
However, although there exist numerous relational databases with spatial extensions, the spatiotemporal databases are not based on the relational model for practical reasons, chiefly among them that the data is multi-dimensional and capturing complex structures and behaviours. As of 2008, there are no RDBMS products with spatiotemporal extensions. There are some products such as the open-source TerraLib which use a middleware approach storing their data in a relational database. Unlike in the pure spatial domain, there are however no official or de facto standards for spatio-temporal data models and their querying. In general, the theory of this area is also less well-developed. Another approach is the constraint database system such as MLPQ (Management of Linear Programming Queries).