NADM , Links, GeoMatter and friends

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NADM , Links, GeoMatter and friends

• An overview of NADM
• Eric Boisvert Vincent Desjardins
• Centre géoscientifique de Québec

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Schedule

• What is NADM ?
• What is ltgeogtLink (Cordlink, Hydrolink,
  GASLLink,etc...)
• What is GeoMatter ?
• How does it work ?
• A down to earth example

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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

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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)

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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/mod
  el/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//cor
  dlink.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/cordlink1/info_pages/English
  /dm52.pdf

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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)

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

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Glossary
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Glossary
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Glossary
Spatial objects
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Glossary

• Glacial flow indicator
• Striae

SOA Type striae Azimuth 210 Direction
Unknown Chronology 1
Classification Scheme
striae
Faint marks on rock Except on volcanic outcrops
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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

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Say what ?

• Incorporates  conceptual  integration through
  COA hierarchy

Universe
Atmosphere
Continental
Lithosphere
Oceanic
Hydrosphere
Plateform
Biosphere
Sea floor
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COA

• Most difficult concept to understand
• Its a hierarchical list of  things  that will
  appear on a map
• There is a fuzzy frontier between COA and legend

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COA
Lithostratigraphic
Lithologic

• Saint Lawrence Lowland
• Potsdam Group
• Cairnside Formation
• Chazy Group

• Igneous
• Plutonic
• Mafic
• Gabbro
• Intermediate
• Felsic
• Syenite
• Granite
• Volcanic
• Mafic

Morphogenetic

• Continental
• Alluvial
• Alluvial terrasses
• Glacial

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COA

• NADM allow multiple types of COA arborescences to
  coexists
• Universe
• Rock Unit
• MorphoGenetic
• ...

Rock Unit specific attribute table
Morphogenetic specific attribute table
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COA
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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
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Interoperability integration
Corporate wide concepts
A
B
Local
A1
A2
B1
Why do I annoy you with this COA tree stuff ?
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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
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Interoperability
Do you have any A ?
A
B
A1
B2
B1
Site 2
Site 1
Ba
Bb
Bc
A1 -gt A A2 -gt A
A1 -gt A
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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

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NADM Important consideration regarding GIS
NADM only handles references to Spatial objects
NADM data structure
GIS
DatasetID SpatialObjId
DatasetId Coverage SpatialObjId item
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NADM Where does it fit ?
Cordlink
NADM structured System
GeoServ
Spatial Objects pool
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NADM Where does it fit ?
ArcView
DatasetId SpatialObjId
NADM structured System
Spatial Objects pool
Shape files, ArcInfo Coverages
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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

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Cordlink and Hydrolink
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Cordlink, HydroLink and others
HTML
ColdFusion Server
Browser
request
NADM structured System
.cfm files
DatasetId SpatialObjId
DatasetId SpatialObjId
MapGuide Viewer
MapGuide Server
Spatial Objects pool SDL and WFM
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Whats next ?
NADM is getting more and more attention as a data
integration approach
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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
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SOA symbolisation
Specific attributes of blobs Are not required
Gabbro X
COA
Therefore, these blobs are related to this COA by
the mean Of this legend item and given this symbol
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SOA symbolisation
Schistosity
SOA SOA SOA
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COA
1- Multiple symbol for 1 point 2- Rotation from
SOA 3- Dip label also from SOA
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Multiple COA
Gabbro X
COA
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WARNING Personal opinion

• Keep the database at the data content level
• Implement external symbolisation processes (such
  as Coleman-Sadds GeoLegend) to create map out of
  database content
• This is an open debate

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What is Geomatter ?

• We have NADM in the core, ltgeogtlink to diffusion
  information, now how do we populate it ?
• GeoMatter is essentially a tool to populate the
  database

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NADM version 5.2 - scary version
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GeoMatter philosophy
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COA Generalization
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Hide data structure complexity
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What s missing ?
Entry tools
Diffusion tools
Geomatter Curly  scripts 
Cordlink and other ltgeogtlinks Cubewerks stuff
Management tools
Import/Export tools
Mostly none Geomatter (?)
None
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What s next ?
Java client
servlet
NADM API
OGDI
NADM OpenGIS
OGDI API
Abstraction layer
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The vision