Understanding the Relation between Temporal Data and Time-Series Data
Time-series data is a more refined version of temporal data where observations are taken at equally spaced points in time successively. With temporal data, on the other hand, observations are simply attached to time, and the intervals may not be equally spaced.
Time-series data is a subset of temporal data, which means that time-series data is temporal data but temporal data may not be time-series data. For example, the following figure of the Puzhal reservoir in Chennai shows the water level over a period of time, which is not equally spaced out necessarily; therefore, the figure is plotted based on temporal data and not time-series data.
Let's look at what stories each type of data can tell:
- Puzhal reservoir in Chennai depicts how water levels change over time:
Figure 5.3: June 15, 2018 (L) and April 6, 2019 (R)
This picture is courtesy of https://time.com/5611385/india-chennai-water...
