Description of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) using the Unified Modelling Language (UML)

Abstract

The International Cartographic Association (ICA) has a number of Commissions, including the Commission on Spatial Data Standards, and this presentation describes some of the work undertaken recently by the Commission. A spatial data structure (SDI) is a mechanism for providing ready access to spatial data to as many users as possible, at a global, regional national or local level. The focus tends to be on providing a clearinghouse for framework or base data sets, with the provision of metadata and adherence to standards being crucial. The SDI provides services to allow the user to discover evaluate and apply spatial data. An SDI cannot exist without strong partnerships to provide the data, technology and services, with these partnerships reducing duplication and the costs of collection, and leveraging the skills of the partners. The Unified Modelling Language (UML) is an object-oriented tool used widely for describing software systems, providing a graphical notation of the architecture of the system. Its use is not limited to software systems, and we felt that it might be useful to use UML to model (or describe) SDIs. This presentation presents the first attempt at this modelling. UML has been used to describe the different types of SDIs and the different elements that make up on SDI, both physical and conceptual. The model will describe SDIs, not prescribe what should be in them – hence, the model could well be an aggregation of special cases, rather than a 'clean' model of SDIs.