First uniform treatment of moving objects databases, the technology that supports GPS and RFID data analysis.

We live in an age of rapid technological development. The Internet already affects our lives in many ways. Indeed, we continue to depend more, and more intrinsically, on the Internet, which is increasingly becoming a fundamental piece of societal infrastructure, just as water supply, electricity grids, and transportation networks have been for a long time. But while these other infrastructures are relatively static, the Internet is undergoing swift and fundamental change: Notably, the Internet is going mobile. The world has some 6.7 billion humans, 4 billion mobile phones, and 1.7 billion Internet users. The two most populous continents, Asia and Africa, have relatively low Internet penetration and hold the greatest potentials for growth. Their mobile phone users by far outnumber their Internet users, and the numbers are growing rapidly. China and India are each gaining about half a dozen million new phone users per month. Users across the globe as a whole increasingly embrace mobile Internet devices, with smart phone sales are starting to outnumber PC sales. Indeed, these and other facts suggest that the Internet stands to gain a substantial mobile component. This mega trend towards “mobile” is enabled by rapid and continuing advances in key technology areas such as mobile communication, consumer electronics, g- positioning, and computing. In short, this is the backdrop for this very timely book on moving objects by Xiaofeng Meng and Jidong Chen.

Applications, 2nd Edition focuses on moving object management, from the location management perspective to determining how constantly changing locations affect the traditional database and data mining technology. The book specifically describes the topics of moving objects modeling and location tracking, indexing and querying, clustering, location uncertainty, traffic-aware navigation and privacy issues, as well as the application to intelligent transportation systems. Through the book, the readers will be made familiar with the cutting-edge technologies in moving object management that can be effectively applied in LBS and transportation contexts. The second edition of this book significantly expands the coverage of the latest research on location privacy, traffic-aware navigation and uncertainty. The book has also been reorganized, with nearly all chapters rewritten, and several new chapters have been added to address the latest topics on moving objects management. Xiaofeng Meng is a professor at the School of Information, Renmin University of China; Zhiming Ding is a professor at the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS); Jiajie Xu is an assistant professor at the ISCAS.

We are rapidly heading towards a world in which the computing infrastructure will contain billions of devices, which will interact with other computing/communications devices that are carried or worn by users as they go through their daily routines. Such devices will provide data access to mobile users as they move within buildings, cities, or across the globe. This new infrastructure presents tremendous challenges for data management technology, including: huge scale; variable and intermittent connectivity; location and context-aware applications; bandwidth, power, and devi- size limitations; and multimedia data delivery across hybrid networks and systems. Traditional data management technologies such as query processing, transaction management, workflow, business process management, and metadata management must all be reevaluated in this emerging environment. Furthermore, nontraditional issues such as the semantics of mobile data, location-dependent querying, broadcast and multicast delivery, and caching/prefetching techniques must all be addressed. The ability to track people as they move about their daily tasks raises serious issues of security and privacy. This conference is the fourth in the Mobile Data Management series, focusing on the challenges and opportunities for the management of data in mobile, pervasive, and wearable computing. MDM 2000 and 2001 were in Hong Kong and MDM 2002 was in Singapore. Eighty-seven papers were submitted to the conference from 23 countries and were subject to a rigorous review procedure. Every paper had three or four independent reviews. Twenty-one full papers and 15 short papers from both academia and industry were selected for publication in this volume of proceedings.

Natural and human activities change the environment we are living in and consequently impact the quality of life. Analysing these dynamics leads to a better understanding of urban change and facilitates urban development. Research related to the management of urban data has a long tradition. Through the years a variety of challenging research questions has been investigated related to the collection, storage, use and visualisation of the data representing the urban phenomena in a computer-based environment. The Urban Data Management Symposium (UDMS) focuses on these issues since 1971. UDMS aims at providing a forum to discuss urban planning processes, exchange ideas, share information on available technology and demonstrate and promote successful information systems in local government. The focus is on urban, regional and rural issues. The UDMS 2009 annual addresses the following themes: 3D modelling, Spatial Data Infrastructures and databases, Risk and Disaster management, Environmental planning, analysis and e-government and Traffic and road monitoring. The book will be a useful source of information for urban data-related professionals, such as scholars, GIS engineers, geomatic professionals, photogrammetrists, land surveyors, mapping specialists, urban planners and researchers, as well as for postgraduate students and lecturers.