The Core GIS Data Preparation project for NATO involved:
- the creation of over 20 different GML application schemas for GML 3.1.1;
- the creation and provision of the NGFDD (NATO Geospatial Feature Data Dictionary) which provides definitions of features, attributes, and attribute enumeration;
- the conversion of existing NATO raster imagery to GML in JPEG2000 as well as using GML to geo-reference the resulting images;
- provision of an ontology.
The ontology captured direct and associated relationships between each feature, attribute, and enumerant combinations associated with a source data product with the equivalent feature, attribute, and enumerant combinations associated with an imported data product. The associated relationships included specialization (including subtype) and other relationships such as aggregation, composition, and dependency.
The ontology model captured the complex semantic relationships between the features of one product to another. The two specific goals of the ontology model were:
- At a low level it was capable of defining a mapping of data from source form to a Feature Data Dictionary.
- At a higher level there was the requirement to formally capture domain expert knowledge and enable complex semantic queries.
This work involved very close collaboration and interaction with NC3A and led directly to a very detailed understanding of NC3A’s operational requirements and philosophy in the geospatial realm. The work done under the Core GIS Data Prep project provided the data foundation for the much broader Core GIS project, and the data being prepared by the consortium (Galdos, TENET, and IIC) was used throughout NATO.
