Spatial Modelling With Cellular Automata

Abstract :
Data heterogeneity and faster dissemination of data are the major issue for consideration in geospatial domain. Many organizations have huge geo data but in heterogeneous data formats, which makes it difficult to utilize these data for an application on a common platform. To overcome such problems and to make data interoperable, many countries have developed their standard data formats.

Government of India also has taken initiatives with the establishment of National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and has recommended NSDE (National Spatial Data Exchange) data format to be used by all the Indian GIS data providers. With these specified standards, the problem of heterogeneity among data of different organizations could be solved, but easier and faster access of data is another requirement. This can only be achieved by transferring maps through Internet and hence this data should be encrypted into a language that can be understood by web browsers, like XML (Extensible Markup Language).

The Open GIS Consortium (OGC) recommended Geography Markup Language (GML), an XML dialect, is specially designed to solve most of the issues in geospatial data interoperability [Henning, S., 2001; Chang, C. et al], Z. Chuanrong)

By mapping from the NSDE format to GML document, the existing local GIS bases are moved into global domain. In Indian context, GML version of NSDE format is not yet designed. Thus it would be of much help for users in India to take benefit of new era of distributed environment like Internet. The proposed schema is designed to fulfill the requirements of NSDE and the GML specifications. Another important aspect for consideration is visualization of Geospatial data over Internet. As GML is not meant for visualization of data, so there must be some language, which can help user to see data over web browser and also can facilitate for interacting with these maps. There are many options for doing so, but SVG proves to be more promising in this.
The paper details about our experiences in converting NSDE data file to GML documents, with emphasis on the requirements and design choices in mapping the NSDE data format to a GML application schema. An attempt has been made to design the schema for non-spatial information and some of the basic spatial features. It can be further extended for any type of spatial and non-spatial information. Benefits of GML and SVG for seamless data transfer and data visualization has been discussed in the full-length paper. Clearing house, dataware house concepts are also discussed as suggestive remarks for further expansion of work
Key Words: Interoperability, NSDE, GML, SVG, Clearing House