Towards a unifying formalisation of geographic representation: the object-field model with uncertainty and semantics
The need for a conceptually unifying data model for the representation of geographic phenomena is widely understood. Although some successes have been reported, progress has been slow, especially at the conceptual and logical levels of abstraction. Drawing on and combining existing successes, this article suggests the object-field model with uncertainty and semantics at the conceptual and logical levels of abstraction. The logical level has been formalised in the Unified Modelling Language (UML) class diagram. It is shown that the concepts required to better represent geographic phenomena can be derived from a single foundation that is termed the Elementary_geoParticle with associated uncertainty and semantics by means of aggregation. The town centre phenomenon is used as an application of the conceptual framework being proposed.
Keywords: field-based models; field-object representation; geographic information science; object-oriented approach; uncertainty
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Centre for International Business & Sustainability, London Metropolitan Business School, London Metropolitan University, London, UK
Publication date: 01 December 2010
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