An extended entity-relationship model for geographic applications

Abstract

A special-purpose extension of the Entity-Relationship model for the needs of conceptual modeling of geographic applications, called the Geo-ER Model, is presented. Handling properties associated to objects not because of the objects' nature but because of the objects' position , calls for dealing -at the semantic modeling level-with space, location and dimensionality of objects, spatial relationships, space-depending attributes, and scale and generalization of representations. In order to accomplish this in the framework of ER and its derivatives, we introduce special entity sets, relationships, and add new constructs. The rationale as well as examples of usage of the Geo-ER model from actual projects are presented.