1. A method comprising the steps of: storing event data representative of an event, the event data comprising spatiotemporally ambiguous measurements; storing side information, the side information comprising at least one of spatial data and temporal data related to the event in space-time; associating the event data with the side information by soft association to form association data; applying one or more estimation techniques to the association data to form estimation data; determining at least one of a rate, a factor, a likelihood, a value, a time, a location, and a cause for the event by applying one or more characterization techniques to the estimation data; and providing a system, wherein the system comprises distinct software modules, each of the distinct software modules being embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and wherein the distinct software modules comprise a storage module, an association module, an estimation module, and a characterization module, wherein: the step of storing event data and the step of storing side information are carried out by the storage module executing on at least one hardware processor; the step of associating the event data with the side information is carried out by the association module executing on the at least one hardware processor; the step of applying one or more estimation techniques to the association data is carried out by the estimation module executing on the at least one hardware processor; and the step of determining at least one of a rate, a factor, a likelihood, a value, a time, a location, and a cause for the event is carried out by the characterization module executing on the at least one hardware processor.