Abstract
This chapter describes methodologies for the conceptual modeling of geographic information in standards from ISO/TC 211 (Geographic information/Geomatics), OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium), or used in information management and data analytics. It begins with general concepts in data modeling, which is followed by the metaphors used in geographic informatics and processing models. Some models are database schemas, represented as object models or schemata for XML or SQL. These models are used as application schemata in object-oriented and relational databases (OODB, RDB) and in text formats for XML.
After early publications of ISO/TC 211 and OGC, with the advent of NoSQL databases and big data analytics processing on very large datasets with simpler formats, the increased use of unstructured data and simpler structures changed the direction of all information processing, including that of geographic information. More flexible data structures, with their underlying model such as JSON and YAML and dynamic programing languages, e. g., JavaScript, and CLOS became a primary component of all data management and modeling 1 .
Between these two extremes are the ontology languages (e. g., OWL, RDF), which cover a wide middle ground able to describe object structure and run-time constraints. In a sense, both UML and taxonomies are limited ontology languages. Standards for these approaches have not been formalized; the first attempt was in OGC with “Features and Geometries”.
A section from the previous edition is included, which describes UML modeling (Sect. 1.3.7) which has been regularly used by geographic information standards and in other chapters.
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Herring, J., Roswell, C., Danko, D. (2022). Modeling of Geographic Information. In: Kresse, W., Danko, D. (eds) Springer Handbook of Geographic Information. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53125-6_1
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