David,
That's easy. As you would expect, a Geographic Line is a line
segment in the path of something like a telephone or power line, or a
road. Again, it is just the line, not the telephone line or the
road.
In the real world, a total path is often made up of multiple
Geographic Line (segments).
A Geographic Solid is a three-dimensional shape occupied by such
as an oil reservoir underground. Actually, this can also be used to
describe an area in space as well. (That one was just suggested to
me. I am not quite sure how that works. The geometry behind assigning
Geographic Points to describe it is currently beyond me.
In both cases, the shape is defined by two or more Geographic
Points.
Note, by the way, that when you get to dealing with maps, the set of
lines, points and polygons are not the same as the Geographic Area,
etc, being described. This was brought home to me at Bell
South, when they showed me two different maps of Kentucky -- that were
different.
Dave
At 11:38 AM 9/26/2012, you wrote:
David,
Could you clarify the terms "Geographic Line" and
"Geographic Solid"
as it isn't as well
defined as "Geographic Point" ?
On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 11:14 AM, David C. Hay
<dch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> In my model of the world (dare I say "upper level
ontology"), Enterprise
> Model Patterns: Describing the World, I have put a lot of thought
into the
> distinctions you describe here.
>
> In my model, Geographic Location, is an place on Earth (OK, I am
a
> geocentric personality, but the model can be extended skyward if
necessary).
> The sub-types are Geographic Area, Geographic Point, Geographic
Line, and
> Geographic Solid. (I only encountered the latter two late in
my career,
> when I worked for a telephone company and an oil company.)
>
> Geographic Area, then, is defined as any bounded 2-dimensional
place. (Since
> we're talking about the Earth, we have to recognize that it's really
a
> spherically 2-dimensional place, but that's in the advanced
class...)
>
> Geographic Area has four sub-types:
>
> 1. Geopolitical Area is a Geographic Area whose boundaries are
defined by
> law or treaty. Thus you have the Geographic Areas that are
"California",
> "Los Angeles County", and the like. Defining
sub-types for Geopolitical
> Area depends on where you are, but I've come up with at least
these:
> a. City
> b. Country
> c. Principle Country Subdivision (which is a really ugly
name for "State",
> or "Province" or (for our UK buddies)
"County") In most real models it
> turns out to be something like State or Province.
> d. Other Geopolitical Area (subject to
negotiation).
>
> 2. Administrative Area is a Geographic Area whose boundaries
are defined,
> typically, by an organization, such as a corporation, but also may
be by a
> government. Examples of this include "South-central sales
area" (defined by
> a company), "United States Pacific Command
(USPACOM)"(defined by the US
> Department of Defense), and more common, a "Postal
Area" (defined by a
> national postal authority).
>
> 3. Natural Area is a Geographic Area whose boundaries are
defined by
> natural phenomena, such as lakes or continents.
>
> 4. Other Surveyed Area is any Geographic Area (other than 1-3,
above) that
> is measured and whose boundaries are recorded. This includes
the lot my
> house is on, the area that is the location of the World Trade Center
in New
> York, and so forth.
>
> Geographic Point is just that: a Geographic Location that is a
single
> point. Usually it's attributes are "longitude",
"latitude", and "elevation",
> but with different systems of geographic reckoning, they could be
something
> else.
>
> Note the this model requires a Geographic Location Relationship,
which is
> the recursive entity type that links one Geographic Location to
another.
> Sub-types of this include Geographic Definition (linking points to
areas,
> lines and solids), Geographic Structure (that puts
"Boston" inside
> "Massachusetts"), Geographic Overlap (one of which puts
the "Navaho Indian
> Reservation" in "Arizona", and another of which puts
the "Navaho Indian
> Reservation" in New Mexico. And of course there's Other
Geographic Location
> Relationship, just in case.
>
> All of this is a pretty sophisticated way to represent just
places. The
> Government that has jurisdiction over a Geopolitical Area is
represented by
> an Organization, linked to the Geopolitical Area via a link class
that I
> have cleverly called Jurisdiction.
>
> Note also that this only covers the place itself. A
"place with a purpose"
> is variously called a Site, a Facility, or an Address. This is
where one or
> more Parties (Persons or Organizations) are located to perform one
or more
> Activities, which consume, use, or produce one or more Physical
Assets.
>
> Note that Address (for example) has two sub-types: Physical
Address (which
> has some fairly complex relationships with Geographic Location), and
Virtual
> Address (which nicely covers Telephone Address, E-mail Address, IP
Address,
> and so forth.)
>
> A Party may be located in one or more Addresses (Physical or
Virtual), just
> as an Address may be the location of one or more Parties.
>
> Note that a physical building is located in one (or more?) Site
(again, for
> example), but it is not the same as the Site. It is a Physical
Asset.
>
> Among the simplest applications we build simply lists names and
addresses.
> That's an output. To actually understand what goes inside that
"simple"
> application requires way more sophistication than most people
appreciate.
> I've spent a fair amount of my career working on this model.
>
> If you've actually read this far, you are a good candidate for
buying my
> book.
>
> Regards
>
> Dave Hay
>
>
>
> At 08:52 AM 9/26/2012, you wrote:
>
> On 9/26/2012 8:53 AM, Andries van Renssen wrote:
>> The reason why the _expression_ 'I dig a hole in the school
district'
>> sounds odd is: because that _expression_ is a short-cut for 'I
dig
>> a hole in the land that has a role as school district'.
>
> I agree with that point. The notion of role is essential
for
> distinguishing every subdivision on planet earth. There
is
> always a reason or a purpose for the choice. That is true
for
> everything from countries and continents to things like farms,
> parking lots, and playgrounds.
>
>> But the piece of land that is defined by that boundary is
>> nevertheless a physical object, and it has a mass, although
>> its value is unknown and not of interest.
>
> Space is physical, but it doesn't have a mass. An area is
> a two-dimensional region. The political subdivisions only
> specify coordinates that determine the area at the surface,
> and they are silent about depth or height.
>
> By fiat, the governments of countries lay claim to the mineral
> rights beneath their areas. In principle, they could claim
rights
> down to the center of the earth. But in practice, the
technology
> can only mine a few km. beneath the surface.
>
> When air travel became possible, national governments laid
claim
> to the air space above them, but smaller governments did not.
> But nobody laid claim to the regions above the atmosphere.
> Those are more distinctions by fiat.
>
> In summary, I recommend that any ontology for any subdivision
> of the earth should specify the surface area S and the intended
> role R for that area.
>
> Then anything else that may be associated with the pair (S,R),
> such as the land, air, water, people, buildings, governments,
> should be specified as the X associated with the area S as
> considered in the role R.
>
> John
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
> Message Archives:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
> Config Subscr:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
> Unsubscribe:
mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Shared Files:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
> Community Wiki:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
> To join:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J
>
>
>
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
> Message Archives:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
> Config Subscr:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
> Unsubscribe:
mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Shared Files:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
> Community Wiki:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
> To join:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J
>
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Config Subscr:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe:
mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To join:
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/
Config Subscr: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/
To join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J (01)
|