ResGSCNADM

NADM , Links, GeoMatter and friends: 

NADM , Links, GeoMatter and friends An overview of NADM Eric Boisvert & Vincent Desjardins Centre géoscientifique de Québec

Schedule: 

Schedule What is NADM ? What is <geo>Link (Cordlink, Hydrolink, GASLLink,etc...) What is GeoMatter ? How does it work ? A down to earth example

NADM North American Data Model: 

NADM North American Data Model Result of an international effort (USA and Canada, Mexico could eventually jump in) Lead by a « Steering Commitee » composed of USGS, AASG, GSC and OGS. SC created a set of 6 Technical Teams addressing specific issues of the Data Model Requirements Data Model Design Documentation Data Interchange Science Language Tool Development

NADM North American Data Model: 

NADM North American Data Model GSC has 2 seats, 1 occupied by Boyan Brodaric and 1 rotating seat. Provincial also have 2 seats, one occupied by Brian Berdusco (OGS) and another to be filled (Eric Grunsky, Alb. ?) Remaining seats occupied by USGS and AASG (American Association of State Geologists)

NADM North American Data Model: 

NADM North American Data Model They produced several documents but the most important for us so far is the Version 4.3 of the database structure. http://geology.usgs.gov/dm/model/Model43a.pdf This is the only true NADM data structure A NADM inspired version has been developed for the Cordlink ResSources project. It is called V 5.2 or simply the  « Cordlink version » http://cordlink.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/cordlink1/info_pages/English/dm52.pdf

NADM 4.3 versus 5.2 at a glance: 

NADM 4.3 versus 5.2 at a glance 5.2 is a generalization of 4.3 5.2 is enhanced to serve as a Virtual Library core (handles images and texts) 5.2 has « shared attributes » 5.2 embeds higher level of information description and relationships 5.2 embeds tool specific metadata (system tables)

NADM logic (5.2): 

NADM logic (5.2) Source Legend scheme Legend items Spatial objects references Compound Object Archive Singular Object Archive Attributes

NADM logic (5.2): 

NADM logic (5.2) Source: Map related information - Author, Edition, Publication, etc. - Scale, projection, resolution Legend : Scheme and Classification -Labels, symbolisation, Legend description Spatial References: Geographical objects - References to points, lines, polygons, volumes, etc.. COA, SOA, Attributes: actual data -Rock description, structural measurements, sample descriptions, ages, stratigraphic positions

Glossary: 

Glossary

Glossary: 

Glossary

Glossary: 

Glossary Spatial objects

Glossary: 

Glossary striae Classification Scheme SOA: Type: striae Azimuth: 210 Direction: Unknown Chronology: 1 Glacial flow indicator Striae Faint marks on rock Except on volcanic outcrops

Why is it so interesting ?: 

Why is it so interesting ? Data deep : it incorporates both factual and interpretative information v 5.2 integrates images and texts Incorporates « conceptual » integration through COA hierarchy

Say what ?: 

Say what ? Incorporates « conceptual » integration through COA hierarchy Universe Atmosphere Lithosphere Hydrosphere Biosphere Continental Oceanic Plateform Sea floor

COA: 

COA Most difficult concept to understand It’s a hierarchical list of « things » that will appear on a map There is a fuzzy frontier between COA and legend

COA: 

COA Saint Lawrence Lowland Potsdam Group Cairnside Formation … Chazy Group Igneous Plutonic Mafic Gabbro … Intermediate … Felsic Syenite Granite … Volcanic Mafic Continental Alluvial Alluvial terrasses … Glacial Lithostratigraphic Morphogenetic Lithologic

COA: 

COA NADM allow multiple types of COA arborescences to coexists Universe Rock Unit … MorphoGenetic ... Rock Unit specific attribute table Morphogenetic specific attribute table

COA: 

COA

COA: 

COA Emphasize the fact that a map is always create with a conceptual framework Geologists are not interoperable between themselves (specially if you include time factor) (D. Lebel, March 21, 2000) So this is not a limitation of NADM itself Geologists were not using the same COA tree

Interoperability & integration: 

Interoperability & integration A B A1 A2 B1 Corporate wide concepts Local Why do I annoy you with this COA tree stuff ?

Example of different concept levels: 

Example of different concept levels Corporate level Tholeiite Local Level High Mg Tholeiite with large amount of feldspar phenocrists. Someone working in volcanic petrology could have 24 differents classes of Tholeiites, but unless the client is looking something very specific, chances are he would stop at the tholeiite level

Interoperability: 

Interoperability A B A1 B2 B1 Ba Bb Bc Site 1 Site 2 Do you have any A ? A1 -> A A2 -> A A1 -> A

Benefit of the COA approach: 

Benefit of the COA approach Can create a global integration of geosciences « things » Corporate don ’t have to update the tree everytimes to accomodate new concepts More specific concepts can be created at local level without affecting the rest Helps search and retrieval of information in multiple (distributed) databases

NADM Important consideration regarding GIS: 

NADM Important consideration regarding GIS NADM data structure DatasetID SpatialObjId GIS NADM only handles references to Spatial objects DatasetId = Coverage SpatialObjId = item

NADM Where does it fit ?: 

NADM Where does it fit ? NADM structured System Cordlink GeoServ Spatial Objects pool

NADM Where does it fit ?: 

NADM Where does it fit ? NADM structured System Spatial Objects pool ArcView Shape files, ArcInfo Coverages DatasetId SpatialObjId

Cordlink, HydroLink and others: 

Cordlink, HydroLink and others Application that taps into NADM structure to deliver information 5.2 version has been developed to respond to Cordlink needs Cordlink is built around the « Virtual Library » paradigm Hydrolink is a « port » of Cordlink to address hydrogeological purposes

Cordlink and Hydrolink: 

Cordlink and Hydrolink

Cordlink, HydroLink and others: 

Cordlink, HydroLink and others NADM structured System Spatial Objects pool SDL and WFM Browser MapGuide Server ColdFusion Server MapGuide Viewer .cfm files HTML request DatasetId SpatialObjId DatasetId SpatialObjId

What’s next ?: 

What’s next ? NADM is getting more and more attention as a data integration approach

Is this truly perfect ???: 

Is this truly perfect ??? Nope, there are a couple of flaws Symbolisation has a couple of conceptual problems, for instance, some symbolisation is SOA based Formally, a single spatial object can be related to more than one COA in the same map (leading to another symbolisation problem) I personally think symbolisation should have been left out of the model

SOA symbolisation: 

SOA symbolisation Gabbro X COA Therefore, these blobs are related to this COA by the mean Of this legend item and given this symbol Specific attributes of blobs Are not required

SOA symbolisation: 

SOA symbolisation Schistosity COA 1- Multiple symbol for 1 point 2- Rotation from SOA 3- Dip label also from SOA 45 30 44 SOA SOA SOA

Multiple COA: 

Multiple COA Gabbro X COA

WARNING – Personal opinion: 

WARNING – Personal opinion Keep the database at the data content level Implement external symbolisation processes (such as Coleman-Sadd’s GeoLegend) to create map out of database content This is an open debate

What is Geomatter ?: 

What is Geomatter ? We have NADM in the core, <geo>link to diffusion information, now how do we populate it ? GeoMatter is essentially a tool to populate the database

NADM version 5.2 - scary version: 

NADM version 5.2 - scary version

GeoMatter philosophy: 

GeoMatter philosophy

COA Generalization: 

COA Generalization

Hide data structure complexity: 

Hide data structure complexity

What ’s missing ?: 

What ’s missing ? Geomatter Curly « scripts » Entry tools Cordlink and other <geo>links Cubewerks stuff Diffusion tools Mostly none Geomatter (?) Management tools None Import/Export tools

What ’s next ?: 

What ’s next ? servlet OGDI Abstraction layer NADM OpenGIS Java client NADM API OGDI API