6.4.7 Rules for application schemas and feature catalogues
From Geostandards
6 INSPIRE
6.1 Background and Motivation
- 6.1.1 Spatial Data Infrastructures
- 6.1.2 Requirements for a European SDI
- 6.1.3 Existing foundation for a European SDI
- 6.2.1 Background and history
- 6.2.2 The five components of the Directive
- 6.2.3 Implementation, status and schedule
- 6.2.4 Groups and responsibilities within INSPIRE
- 6.2.5 INSPIRE Implementing Rules and INSPIRE Guidance Documents
- 6.2.6 European and Global initiatives in the context of INSPIRE
6.3 Technical Architecture Overview
- 6.3.1 Relationship between the different components, in particular spatial data, metadata, registers, and network services
- 6.3.2 Terminology
6.4 Interoperabilty of spatial data sets / INSPIRE data specifications
- 6.4.1 Requirements of the INSPIRE Directive
- 6.4.2 Interoperability of spatial data
- 6.4.3 INSPIRE data scope
- 6.4.4 Modelling Framework
- 6.4.5 Generic Conceptual Model
- 6.4.6 ISO 19100 series of International Standards
- 6.4.7 Rules for application schemas and feature catalogues
- 6.4.8 Identifier Management
- 6.4.9 Object referencing modelling
- 6.4.10 Coordinate referencing
- 6.4.11 Multi-lingual text and cultural adaptability
- 6.4.12 Data quality
- 6.4.13 Metadata for evaluation and use
- 6.4.14 Multiple representations
- 6.4.15 Consistency between data
- 6.4.16 Portrayal model
- 6.4.17 Conformance
- 6.4.18 Generic Network Model
- 6.4.19 Gazetteers
- 6.4.20 Encoding and data formats
- 6.4.21 INSPIRE registers
- 6.4.22 Annex I data specifications
- 6.4.23 Outlook to Annex II/III data specifications
- 6.4.24 Extensions by countries or communities
INSPIRE follows EN ISO 19109, both on the meta-level (the General Feature Model) and on the rules for application schemas including the use of UML and OCL, with some extensions/changes:
- The General Feature Model had to be extended to cover coverage aspects, as these are not addressed in EN ISO 19109 at the moment.
- There is a need to distinguish two types of properties with “no data” to allow for a correct interpretation of the data:
- The characteristic is not present or not applicable in the real world (expressed in the multiplicity of the property).
- The characteristic is not present in the spatial object, but may be present or applicable in the real world (expressed using an additional stereotype <<voidable>>, following the „void“ concept from ISO 11404).
- Anticipating the new version of ISO 19103, UML 2.1 is used.
- Three additional stereotypes are specified and used
- <<featureType>> as defined in the UML profile of EN ISO 19136
- <<placeholder>> to denote placeholder types that will be further specified in Annex II/III themes
- <<lifeCycleInfo>> to identify life-cycle metadata about the object
- Rules for cases where mutiple versions of the same feature are relevant.
In addition to the UML model with the application schemas, a feature concept dictionary (EN ISO 19126) is used for consistency in the definitions of the feature types across the 34 themes. The INSPIRE Feature Concept Dictionary is maintained in a register according to EN ISO 19135.
Furthermore, feature catalogues according to EN ISO 19110 are derived from the application schemas (the English version via scripts), i.e. they are mainly a different representation of the information in the application schema. The feature catalogue plays three important roles in INSPIRE:
- It supports the styling of the application schema information into a human readable, textual presentation.
- Feature catalogues are translated at least into all official languages of the European Union (the application schema is managed in English only).
- Published via a registry service, it allows queries on and access to the individual elements in the application schema – both by human users via a portal as well as by software. For example, it allows direct access to the name and definition of an entry in an enumerated value in all supported languages.
To model spatial and temporal aspects in the application schema, EN ISO 19107, EN ISO 19108, and EN ISO 19123 are applied.
For the use of EN ISO 19123, additional rules are specified as they are not part of the current version of EN ISO 19109. The additional rules essentially mean that in an application schema a coverage function is modeled as a property of a spatial object type and the coverage itself is the value of such a property. Note that in some cases the coverage, which is a spatial object type, too, may be used as a “standalone” spatial object type, too.
In principle, ontologies should be useful to overcome the data interoperability issues. However, ontologies are not yet used in INSPIRE as they are considered still a research topic and not ready for an operational use in INSPIRE. In the future, ontologies are considered as a potential tools to help with data transformation, cultural adaptability or with multiple representations of the same phenomenon.
| ← previous | Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) | next → |
