An object repository model for the storage of spatial metadata

The design of spatial information systems has traditionally been carried out independently of mainstream database developments. It is contended that the adoption of mainstream database design techniques is important to progress in the spatial information systems development field. An accepted approach to the development of information systems is through an integrated development environment with a design repository at its core. This paper proposes a skeleton model for the design of a repository to store spatial metadata. An object oriented modelling approach is adopted in preference to an entity relationship approach because of its ability to model functional and dynamic aspects of the repository.Unpublished1. Milne, P., Milton, S. and Smith, J.L. "Geographical object oriented databases - a case study." International Journal of Geographical Information Systems. 7(1): 39-55, 1993 2. Firns, P. G. An Extended Entity Relationship Model Applicable to the design of Spatially Referenced Databases. PhD Thesis, University of Otago 1994. 3. Kim, W., J. Garza and A. Keskin. "Spatial data management in database systems: research directions." Advances in Spatial Databases. Third International Symposium, SSD '93 Proceedings. Abel ed. 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin, Germany. 4. Worboys, M. F. “Object Oriented approaches to geo-referenced information” International Journal of Geographical Information Systems (8) 4, 385-399, 1994 5. Healey R.G. "Database Management Systems”, in Maguire et al “Geographical Information Systems, Longman 1991. " 1: 251-67. 6. Oracle 7 MultiDimension - Oracle Press release April 1995 - http:\\www.oracle.com 7. Radke, John and Yvonne Everett. "The Klamath Meta Data Dictionary." Annual Meeting of the American Society of Geographers, San Fransisco, CA April. 1994 8. Shoshani A, "Experience with creating a metadatabase and a metadata browsing tool" IEEE workshop on metadata for scientific and technical data management May 1994 Washington DC 9. Henderson, M. “The Importance of data administration in information management” Information Management Review 1987 2(4) 41-47 10. Brown, C “The role of a repository in the adoption of object-oriented techniques and databases” CASE Trends July 1993 11. Cheng, H., M. Bouziane, L. Rattner and L. Yee. "Information Resources Managament in heterogeneous distributed environments: A metadatabase approach." IEEE transactions Software Eng. 17(6): 1991. 12. Rumbaugh, J., M. Blaha, W. Premerlani, F. Eddy and W. Lorensen. "Object-oriented modelling and design." 1991 Prentice Hall. New Jersey. 13. Cockcroft, S.K.S. “Towards the Specification of a Spatial Metadata Repository Structure” Proceedings of the 1995 New Zealand Conference on Geographical Information Systems and Spatial Information Research Massey University, April 26th - 28th 1995. 97-111 14. Egenhofer, M. J., and Franzosa, R. D. "Point set topological Spatial relations" International Journal of Geographical Information Systems. 5(2): 161-174, 1991. 15. Tomlin, C. D. "Geographic Information Systems and Cartographic modelling ." 1990 Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey: Prentice Hall). 16. Raafat, H., Z. Yang and D. Gauthier. "Relational spatial topologies for historical geographical information." International Journal of Geographical Information Systems. 8(2): 163-173, 199