GIS Modeling Language Standards Review and Recommendations

Funding Agency:

Principal Investigators:

• Jerry Dobson
  
• Max Egenhofer

Proposal Summary:

We will to review and evaluate approaches to and standards for modeling languages in GIS. Particular emphasis will be put on the evaluation of EXPRESS/STEP and its similarities and dissimilarities with other approaches such as SDTS or OGC's interoperability specifications.

Our investigation will focus on:

• the availability of tools in these languages for modeling the semantics of geo-spatial data, including abstraction mechanisms, such as generalization and aggregation;
• the mechanisms provided to specify behavior of geo-spatial objects in terms of their operations;
• the appropriateness of the languages' approaches to modeling the structural aspects of geo-spatial data, particularly the geometry (topology and metric) of geo-spatial objects;
• the inclusion of the treatment of multiple conceptual representations (e.g., raster and vector); and
• the extensibility of the modeling languages to account for often domain-specific modeling requirements such as three-dimensional representations.

For this purpose, we will conduct a technical review of EXPRESS/STEP, analyze itıs appropriateness for modeling geo-spatial data, and develop a report discussing and prioritizing courses of action.

Last updated on August 4, 1997.