Standard Information Model for Meta-Data

This document provides a detailed and explanatory description of the Standard Information Model for Meta-Data (SIM) which constitutes an intrinsic part of the Spatial Information Platform (SIP) of the EU FP7 project SWITCH-ON (Sharing Water-related Information to Tackle Changes in the Hydrosphere – for Operational Needs). Although widely adopted information models for the description of data and services do exist (e.g. ISO19115 (2003) and ISO 19119 (2005), the Standard Information Model of the SIP is not solely based on one of these standards. Instead of defining one fixed information model that is based on a selection of particular meta(data) standards or profiles, the Standard Information Model of the SIP has been tailored to the actual information needs of the SIP, auxiliary services, and tools as well as its end users (product developers and researchers working in the virtual water-science lab). Thereby, the concepts of the CKAN (Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network) domain model as well as support for meta- (data) standards like Dublin Core, ISO 19115, etc., have been considered in the design of the SIM. The design of the SIM follows therefore a graduated approach with the following three different levels of increasing extensibility and flexibility: Relational Model The relational model defines the outline for an object relational database model and supports the core business processes of the SIP. Dynamic Tag Extensions Dynamic tag extensions augment the relational model by user definable code lists and thus provide a simple yet powerful extension mechanism. Dynamic Content Extensions Dynamic Content Extensions form a mechanism to dynamically inject complex structured or semi-structured content in the SIM without the need to change the relational model