OBJECT-ORIENTED MODELING OF GEOGRAPHIC DATA

Citation
E. Clementini et P. Difelice, OBJECT-ORIENTED MODELING OF GEOGRAPHIC DATA, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 45(9), 1994, pp. 694-704
Citations number
40
Categorie Soggetti
Information Science & Library Science","Information Science & Library Science
ISSN journal
00028231
Volume
45
Issue
9
Year of publication
1994
Pages
694 - 704
Database
ISI
SICI code
0002-8231(1994)45:9<694:OMOGD>2.0.ZU;2-N
Abstract
Two levels of data abstraction, namely conceptual and logical, are ess ential in the process of designing an object-oriented geographic datab ase. The aim of the present article is to establish a consistent frame work for this bilevel design. At the conceptual level, we develop an o bject-oriented model useful for organizing the designer's knowledge ab out a geographic application in terms of the basic concepts of the obj ect-oriented paradigm. Both conceptual abstraction primitives (namely, classification, generalization, and aggregation) and a spatial abstra ction primitive (namely, location) are discussed. The dynamic part of the model is due to the methods associated with objects. At the logica l level, we propose an object-oriented structure of classes and instan ces, which is uniform with the conceptual model and, therefore, facili tates the conceptual logical mapping. On the whole, the model-based ap proach adopted in this article offers object orientation, conceptual a bstraction, and system extendibility.