How to deal with Assets over Time?

[KyleGonterwitz]

start date and end date fields.  For collection and data entry we might interact with those date fields.  For mapping use we might publish a layer with a current date query, most data reviewers want a simple current status.  Playing with date fields let's you know more but adds a lot of complexity.    Also we use a more static ID than the object ID field if possible.

[CharlesMurphy]

Thanks for the response!

Could you elaborate a little more on that? I think your saying to get the relevant data you use the date to query what you need. 

If you do an actual "update" on every feature by just updating the fields at that ObjectID isn't a lot of historical context lost?  But if you recollect every year with just a new feature being added would two features of the same asset collected year over year have a connection between the two?  

Is there a way you would query every feature that an asset relates to? 

[KyleGonterwitz]

You end up with a lot of potential options.  To update everything you could end date everything and start sate  new records 

Later than the end date of the last thing.  Some of the Esri feature service and app capabilities let you play data through time using this sort of method, so you can see changes in conditions or measurements over time. 

It gets complex when you compare multiple "related" historical things, were they always related?  What if somebody finds a record from the past that should have been a different value?  You can deal with all this but you have to organize virtual history, real history, and reconcile why things changed over time, and how actual changes factor in to predictive analytics vs virtual changes.  

An example we deal with a lot is crashes at an intersection, then the intersection is improved, then the factors contributing to crashes can really change significantly because of real changes.  Say we change the name of the highway at the intersection, that doesnt change the actual history, just the relationship of the history to what the name was at the time vs now.