Towards an Integrated Model of Interoperability for Spatial Data Infrastructures

Abstract

Although there is a vast literature available on interoperability models, and their respective interoperability levels, limited research has been carried out on the development of interoperability models for the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures. This article demonstrates the important role of metadata elements in the formalisation of interoperability models for the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures. It describes an approach for designing an integrated interoperability model based on the definition of a common template that integrates seven interoperability levels. They are: technical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, dynamic, conceptual and organisational levels. A non-hierarchical structure is proposed to ensure the relationship among these interoperability levels.

The Americas’ Spatial Data Infrastructure

“…Technical interoperability, which allows the interconnection of systems, both at hardware and software level, through communication infrastructure, communication protocols and data transfer, data exchange formats, and common or standard interface specifications [5];…”

“…Syntactic interoperability, which allows the exchange of information between systems using a format or structure of data, language, logic, registers, and common files [5];…”

Maritime spatial planning supported by infrastructure for spatial information in Europe (INSPIRE)

“…The results of this analysis are summarised in Table 2. The INSPIRE data model provides interoperability (Manso et al, 2009) not only for the data sets describing a same data theme (e.g. transport data in France -transport data in Spain), but also for cross-sector thematic data (e.g.…”

A Unified Approach for Spatial Data Query

“…OpenGIS Consortium is an association looking to define a set of requirements, standards, and specifications that will support GIS interoperability. An approach for designing an integrated interoperability model based on the definition of a common template that integrates seven interoperability levels is proposed in [7].In addition, several work targeted SDI and Geo-Graphic metadata. Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) are used to support the discovery and retrieval of distributed geographic information (GI) services by providing catalogue services through interoperability standards.…”

“…A spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is a data infrastructure implementing a framework of geographic data, metadata, users, and tools that interact to use spatial data in an efficient way [3]. Another definition for SDI was presented in [7], in this paper the authors define an SDI as the technology, policies, standards, human resources, and related activities necessary to acquire process, distribute, use, maintain, and preserve spatial data. In general, SDI is required to discover and deliver spatial data from a data repository, via a spatial service provider, to a user.…”