Database Modelling for Environmental and Land Use Changes

Christophe Claramunt, Christine Parent, Stefano Spaccapietra and Marius Thériault
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Christophe Claramunt: The Nottingham Trent University
Christine Parent: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Stefano Spaccapietra: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Marius Thériault: Laval University

Chapter 10 in Geographical Information and Planning, 1999, pp 181-202 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The search for a better understanding of natural and human phenomena is the main purpose of science. Today, a wide range of operational GIS applications used for scientific research, business and planning illustrates the usefulness of this technology to study characteristics of geographical distributions. However, real world entities are located and are evolving in both space and time. Users are thus quite often unsatisfied with the traditional static two-dimensional, map-oriented representation of nature and want to integrate temporal dimension and modelling of changes within GIS applications. In contrast, environmental modelling deals with the numerical simulation of three-dimensional, (space) time-dependent processes with roots in atmospheric, hydrologic, geologic, soil, biologic, ecological, and other natural sciences (Goodchild et al. 1996). Contemporary simulation modelling emphasises interdisciplinary approaches combining atmospheric, hydrologic and ecological models that can be linked across various temporal and spatial scales to measure, understand and predict interactions between the biosphere and other Earth subsystems. To fulfil these needs, GIS technology, mainly based on the traditional concept of map layers and static databases, has to evolve in two ways: to support open interoperability between systems, using appropriate data structures that can be addressed externally and linked into existing environmental models; and to include functions to handle time, change and events in order to describe real world processes using database technology.

Keywords: Object Type; Integrity Constraint; Relationship Type; Database Schema; Database Modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-03954-0_10

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