Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

OCL for formal modelling of topological constraints involving regions with broad boundaries

  • Published:
GeoInformatica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Integrity constraints can control topological relations of objects in spatial databases. These constraints can be modelled using formal languages such as the spatial extension of the Object Constraint Language (Spatial OCL). This language allows the expression of topological integrity constraints involving crisp spatial objects but it does not support constraints involving spatial objects with vague shapes (e.g. forest stand, pollution zone, valley or lake). In this paper, we propose an extension of Spatial OCL based on (1) a geometric model for objects with vague shapes, and (2) an adverbial approach for modelling topological constraints involving regions with broad boundaries. This new language provides an easiness in the formal modelling of these complex constraints. Our approach has been implemented in a code generator. A case study is also presented in the paper in the field of agriculture spreading activities. AOCL OVS takes account of the shape vagueness of spread parcel and improve spatial reasoning about them.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Altman D (1994) Fuzzy set theoretic approaches for handling imprecision in spatial analysis. Int J Geogr Inf Syst 8:271–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bejaoui L, Bédard Y, Pinet F, Saheli M, Schneider M (2007) Logical consistency for vague spatiotemporal objects and relations. In: 5th International symposium on spatial data quality (ISSDQ 2007), Enschede, NLD, 13–15 June 2007, 8 p

  3. Bejaoui L, Pinet F, Bédard Y, Schneider M (2008) Qualified topological relations between spatial objects with possibly vague shape. to appear in International Journal of Geographical Information Science

  4. Bejaoui L, Pinet F, Bédard Y, Schneider M (2008) An Adverbial Approach for Formal Specification of Topological Constraints Involving Regions with Broad Boundaries, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 5231 (ER 2008), p. 383–396

  5. Borges KAV, Davis CA, Laender AHF (2001) OMT-G: An Object-Oriented Data Model for Geographic Applications. GeoInformatica 5:221–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Brown DG (1998) Classification and boundary vagueness in mapping presettlement forest types. Int J Geogr Inf Syst 12:105–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Burrough PA (1989) Fuzzy mathematical methods for soil survey and land evaluation. J Soil Sci 40:477–492

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Burrough PA, Frank AU (1996) Geographic objects with indeterminate boundaries

  9. Claramunt C (2000) Extending Ladkin’s algebra on non-convex intervals towards an algebra on union-of regions. In: Proceedings of the 8th ACM international symposium on Advances in geographic information systems. ACM, Washington, D.C., United States

  10. Clementini E, Di Felice P (1997) Approximate Topological Relations. Int J Approx Reason 16:173–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Cockcroft S (2004) The Design and Implementation of a Repository for the Management of Spatial Data Integrity Constraints. GeoInformatica 8:49–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Cockcroft S (2001) Modelling Spatial Data Integrity Rules at the Metadata Level. In: 6th International Conference on GeoComputation, Brisbane, Australia, 2001 september 24–26

  13. Cockcroft S (1997) A Taxonomy of Spatial Data Integrity Constraints. GeoInformatica 1:327–343

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Cockcroft S (1998) User Defined Spatial Business Rules: Storage, Management and Implementation—A Pipe Network Case Study. In: 10th Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New-Zealand, 16–19 novembre 1998. p 73–81

  15. Cohn AG, Bennett B, Gooday J, Gotts NM (1997) Qualitative Spatial Representation and Reasoning with the Region Connection Calculus. GeoInformatica 1:275–316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Cohn AG, N.M Gotts (1996) The ‘Egg-Yolk’ Representation of Regions with Indeterminate Boundaries. In: GISDATA Specialist Meeting on Spatial Objects with Undetermined Boundaries. Taylor & Francis, p 171–187

  17. Cook S, Daniels J (1994) Designing object systems-object oriented modeling with Syntropy. Prentice-Hall

  18. Demuth B (2005) The Dresden OCL Toolkit and the Business Rules Approach. In: European Business Rules Conference (EBRC2005), Amsterdam

  19. Demuth B, Hussmann H (1999) Using UML/OCL Constraints for Relational Database Design. In: «UML»’99—The Unified Modeling Language. p 751–751

  20. Demuth B, Hussmann H, Loecher S (2001) OCL as a Specification Language for Business Rules in Database Applications. In: «UML» 2001—The Unified Modeling Language. Modeling Languages, Concepts, and Tools. p 104–117

  21. Demuth B, Loecher S, Zschaler S (2004) Structure of the Dresden OCL Toolkit. In: 2nd International Fujaba Days “MDA with UML and Rule–based Object Manipulation”, Darmstadt, Germany, September 15–17

  22. Dilo A (2006) Representation of and reasoning with vagueness in spatial information: A system for handling vague objects. Wageningen University and ITC, 187 p

  23. Duboisset M, Pinet F, Kang MA, Schneider M (2005) Precise modeling and verification of topological integrity constraints in spatial databases: from an expressive power study to code generation principles. Lect Notes Comput Sci 3716:465–482

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Egenhofer M, Herring J (1990) A mathematical framework for the definition of topological relations. In: Fourth International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, Zurich, Switzerland. p 803–813

  25. Egenhofer M, Franzosa J (1990) Point-set Topological relations. Int J Geogr Inf Syst 5(2):161–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Erwig M, Schneider M (1997) Vague regions. In: Advances in Spatial Databases. p 298–320

  27. Frank AU (2001) Tiers of ontology and consistency constraints in geographical information systems. Int J Geogr Inf Syst 15:667–678

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Hasenohr P, Pinet F (2006) Modeling of a spatial DSS template in support to the Common agricultural policy. J decis syst 15:181–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Hazarika S, Cohn A (2001) Qualitative Spatio-Temporal Continuity. In: Spatial Information Theory. p 92–107

  30. Hwang S, Thill J-C (2005) Modeling Localities with Fuzzy Sets and GIS. In: Fuzzy Modeling with Spatial Information for Geographic Problems. p 71–104

  31. Kang MA, Pinet F, Schneider M, Chanet JP, Vigier F (2004) How to design geographic database? Specific UML profile and spatial OCL applied to wireless Ad Hoc networks. In: 7th Conference on Geographic Information Science (AGILE'2004), Heraklion, GRC, April 29-May 1 2004. p 289–299

  32. Klasse Objecten (2005) OCL Tools and Services Web Site. In: <http://www.klasse.nl/ocl>

  33. Kleppe A, Warmer J (2003) Object Constraint Language, the Getting your Models Ready for MDA. Addison-Wesley

  34. Miliauskaite E, Nemuraite L (2005) Representation of Integrity Constraints in Conceptual Models. Information Technology and Control 34:355–365

    Google Scholar 

  35. OMG (2007) Unified Modelling Language: OCL, version 2.0. OMG Specification In:

  36. Parent C, Spaccapietra S, Zimanyi E (2006) Conceptual Modeling for Traditional and Spatio-temporal Applications. Springer

  37. Pinet F, Duboisset M, Demuth B, Schneider M, Soulignac V, Barnabe F (2009) Constraints modeling in Agricultural Databases. In: Advances in Modeling Agricultural Systems. Springer

  38. Pinet F, Duboisset M, Soulignac V (2007) Using UML and OCL to maintain the consistency of spatial data in environmental information systems. Environ Model Softw 22:1217–1220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Raffaeta A, Ceccarelli T, Centeno D, Giannotti F, Massolo A, Parent C, Renso C, Spaccapietra S, Turini F (2008) An application of advanced spatio-temporal formalisms to behavioural ecology. GeoInformatica 12:37–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Randell DA, Cohn AG (1989) Modelling topological and metrical properties of physical processes. In: 1st International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR’89). p 357–368

  41. Reis R, Egenhofer MJ, Matos J (2006) Topological relations using two models of uncertainty for lines. In: 7th international Symposium on Spatial Accuracy Assessment in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, 5–7 July, Lisbon, Portugal. p 286–295

  42. Salehi M, Bédard Y, Mir AM, Brodeur J (2007) On Languages for the Specification on Integrity Constraints in Spatial Conceptual Models, Semantic and Conceptual Issues in GISs (SeCoGIS), November 05–09. Auckland, New Zealand

    Google Scholar 

  43. Servigne S, Ubeda T, Puricelli A, Laurini R (2000) A methodology for spatial consistency improvement of geographic databases. GeoInformatica 4:7–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Souris M (2006) Contraintes d’intégrité spatiales. In: Devillers R, Jeansoulin R (eds) Qualité de l’information géographique. Lavoisier, p 100–123

  45. Tang T (2004) Spatial object modeling in fuzzy topological spaces: with applications to land cover change. University of Twente

  46. Warmer J, Kleppe A (1999) The Object Constraint Language Precise Modeling with UML. Addison-Wesley

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the referees for their suggestions and comments on the paper. The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of Canada NSERC and its 9 industrial partners for the Industrial Research Chair in Geospatial Database for Decision Support.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Research in Geomatics (CRG), Laval University, Quebec, QC, Canada

    Lotfi Bejaoui & Yvan Bédard

  2. Industrial Research Chair in Geospatial Databases for Decision Support, Laval University, Quebec, QC, Canada

    Lotfi Bejaoui & Yvan Bédard

  3. Cemagref, Clermont Ferrand, France

    Lotfi Bejaoui, François Pinet & Michel Schneider

  4. Blaise Pascal University, Clermont Ferrand, France

    Lotfi Bejaoui & Michel Schneider

Authors
  1. Lotfi Bejaoui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. François Pinet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Michel Schneider
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yvan Bédard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to François Pinet.

Appendix: 242 topological relations between regions with broad boundaries

Appendix: 242 topological relations between regions with broad boundaries

figure pfigure pfigure pfigure pfigure pfigure pfigure p

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bejaoui, L., Pinet, F., Schneider, M. et al. OCL for formal modelling of topological constraints involving regions with broad boundaries. Geoinformatica 14, 353–378 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10707-010-0104-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10707-010-0104-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation