An ISO TC 211 Conformant Approach to Model Spatial Integrity Constraints in the Conceptual Design of Geographical Databases

The ISO TC 211 standards have defined a set of formal models for the conceptual modeling of spatial data using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the geometry approach adopted by the ISO spatial data model and by the Geographic Mark-up Language (GML). This approach aims to define a conceptual model for the design of geographic databases and for the geospatial interoperability of heterogeneous spatial databases. The ISO standards are however complex and counterintuitive in dealing with spatial integrity constraints, which are fundamental for the expressiveness of a conceptual model in the geographic application domain. This paper improves the ISO approach by proposing a framework which allows the definition of powerful, easy to use, and ISO conformant modeling abstractions for topological spatial constraints. These modeling abstractions have been incorporated in the definition of the GeoUML conceptual model used in the Italian IntesaGIS project for the definition of the “core” database of the Italian Spatial Data Infrastructure.