Formalizing Behavior of Geographic Feature Types
Robert D. Rugg, Max J. Egenhofer, Werner Miguel Kühn · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · 1995
1 Acknowledgments 1 1. Introduction 2 2. The Entity Type DAM in SDTS 3 3. Functional Algebras for Entity Type Definitions 5 4. A Definition of Dam using Functional Algebra 8 4.1 Constructing a Dam 9 4.2 Raising a Dam 10 4.3 Reservoir is Full 12 4.4 Lowering a Dam (discharging) 12 5. Conclusions 13 5.1 Summary 13 5.2 Discussion 14 5.3 Future Work 15 6. References 1 Abstract This paper addresses the problem of formalizing the natural-language definitions of spatial features. While the Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) supports the structural aspects of the definition of spatial features, it falls short of providing means to convey explicitly their behavior. An approach using functional algebra is developed using the example of the SDTS standard entity types "dam," "watercourse," and "lake," together with the operations expressed in the natural-language definitions of these features. Formal algebraic specifications go beyond the SDTS approach, by providing precise mathematical rep...