A CONCEPTUAL-MODEL FOR THE LOGICAL DESIGN OF TEMPORAL DATABASES

Although widely advocated as a tool for the conceptual modelling of da ta, the Entity-Relationship (E-R) model [4] and its extensions are gen erally lacking in constructs to model the dynamic nature of the real w orld, making them inadequate for designing temporal databases. This re search first extends the E-R model to a Temporal Event-Entity-Relation ship Model (TEERM), by introducing events as an additional construct. Second, a method is proposed for mapping this conceptual model into a temporal relational model for the logical design of temporal relationa l databases with a corresponding set of integrity constraints. The mod el is illustrated with an example and evaluated using a set of criteri a proposed by Batini et al. [2]. The model appears to be expressive, s imple and easy to use, and should, therefore, aid the temporal databas e design process significantly.