· · · Institutional Repository

For the creation of three-dimensional (3D) city models, extrusion of building footprints is widely applied. Extrusion results in block shaped buildings. The main problem with these 3D models is that they do not represent height differences within a building. This thesis presents a method to improve building footprints by subdivision into parts describing height differences and roof shapes. These improved building footprints are used for creating 3D models by separate extrusion of each of these parts. Applying this method results in 3D building models with multiple heights. Several subjects are discussed in this thesis: generalization, decomposition, segmentation, 3D geometry reconstruction and their validation. This research is based on the combination of two existing methods, one for generalization and decomposition of building footprints, and one for segmentation of point clouds. These methods are extended and problems are solved by including: (1) direction of lines, (2) best fitting line, (3) adjacent buildings, (4) preservation of holes, (5) handling of slant lines, (6) quality statistics and (7) validation. The existing generalization method creates topology errors which are reduced by including knowledge from adjacent buildings. Decomposed building footprints are merged based on the segmented point cloud. The resulting decomposition is a subdivision describing multiple roof shapes and height jumps, based on linear features in the building footprint. Reconstruction of the actual 3D geometry is performed by extrusion of the decomposition cells. The resulting reconstruction is a Level of Detail 1 (LoD) model with height differences. To test the usability of the improved footprints for reconstruction of a LoD2 model, parametric shape fitting is applied. These tests are executed using a small set of roof shapes proving the usability. All reconstructed 3D building geometries are validated using Oracle Spatial 11g. In order to analyze, test and improve the developed algorithms, a prototype is implemented in C++. This prototype is tested intensively with several real-world data sets. Results from these tests are proving proper functioning of the developed method and support the conclusions.

The aim of this master thesis has been to answer the question: How can a vario-scale IMGeo be designed and developed by applying the constrained tGAP structure with Top10NL as initial constraint? This research has been done under authority of Gemeentewerken Rotterdam and TU Delft. For Gemeentewerken Rotterdam the main goal is to investigate the possibilities of automatic generalisation based on their project "Basisregistratie Geografie", for TU Delft the main goal is to see the concept of the constrained tGAP structure being investigated. The models IMGeo, a new large scale topographical standard in The Netherlands, and Top10NL, the authentic registration for medium scale topography in The Netherlands, are both derived from NEN 3610; they form the basis for the generalisation in this research. The main differences are explained by their backgrounds. IMGeo originates from the GBKN, whereas Top10NL is based on Top10Vector. The fact that these models are not made cooperatively is bad luck for this research; no object class hierarchy could be made from these models, because there are object classes in Top10NL which don't even exist in IMGeo. The Top10NL object classes therefore can't be seen as a generalisation of the object classes of IMGeo. The generalisation approach in this research was the constrained tGAP structure, a concept from the universities of Hannover and Delft. In this research IMGeo objects were assigned to Top10NL regions. Four possible methods to assign IMGeo objects to Top10NL regions were developed: - Simple overlay method. An intersection between the models where every IMGeo object is split at the borders of the overlapping Top10NL object. In the end result only Top10NL geometry will be visible. - The maximum area method. The Top10NL object which overlaps the IMGeo object the most is the shape to which the whole IMGeo object is assigned to. The IMGeo geometry is kept in this method. - The 35%-split method. If an IMGeo object belongs for more than 35% to two Top10NL objects we consider this Top10NL geometry as enrichment of the structure; therefore the IMGeo object is split and a new IMGeo object is created. For all IMGeo objects that don't have two Top10NL objects overlapping for more than 35% the maximum area method is applied. - The building first method. This method assigns IMGeo-buildings to a building region in case of some overlap with a Top10NL building without considering the amount of overlap. The other IMGeo objects are selected as in the maximum area method. The building first method has been developed because the results of the maximum area method and the 35%-split method were unsatisfying. This building first method gives the best results of the four methods. With this method further research was done. For the test dataset from the municipality of Almere class weights and class compatibilities have been derived, which are input values for the tGAP structure. This has been done after tuning the weights and compatibilities of the constrained tGAP structure and comparing the end result to the Top10NL dataset. Final conclusion of this report is that the constrained tGAP absolutely offers possibilities for automatic generalisation from large to medium scale data. However, the amount of pre-processing of the data and the state of development of the tGAP structure are reasons for a governmental organisation like Gemeentewerken Rotterdam to not yet develop a product like this. A topological structure of the models might possibly solve these problems. Cooperation between researching parties, industrial parties and governmental organisations in projects like DURP Ondergronden could be a good opportunity to develop a vario-scale IMGeo as described in this report.

Planar partitions (subdivisions of the plane into polygonal areas) constitute one of the most important data representations in GIS. They are used to model concepts as varied as land use, administrative units, natural features and cadastral parcels, among many others. However, since polygons are often stored separately, different errors and inconsistencies are introduced during their creation, manipulation (both manual and automatic) and exchange. These come in the form of invalid polygons, gaps, overlaps and disconnected polygons, which severely hampers their use in other software. Existing approaches to solve this problem usually involve polygon repair using a list of constraints, and complex planar partition repair operations performed on a planar graph. However, these have many shortcomings in terms of complexity, numerical robustness and difficulty of implementation. Moreover, they leave many invalid cases untouched. To solve this problem, a novel method to validate and automatically repair planar partitions has been developed. It uses a constrained triangulation of the polygons as a base, which being by definition a planar partition, means that only relatively simple operations are needed to ensure that the output becomes valid. Point locations are maintained throughout the process, while fully automatic repair is possible using customisable criteria. This approach is also extensible to individual polygons, is capable of handling a larger variety of cases and has good performance compared to existing alternatives; all of this with numerical robustness and maintaining topological consistency throughout. In order to analyse, test and improve the developed algorithms, and encourage further development, a fast and efficient implementation has been written in C++, which has been tested with several large data sets and compared with other available software, regarding both performance and functionality. This prototype is able to successfully repair planar partitions of more than 100,000 polygons. It is also open source and freely available on the GDMC website (http://www.gdmc.nl/).

The goal of this research is to develop a 3D topological structure with validation functionality and a conversion function. Based on this research question, some sub questions have been defined and a research methodology. The outline of this research is elaborated in chapter 1. The first use of topology has been attributed to Euler in 1736, since then, topology has evolved in mathematics but also in GIS. Since the second half of the 20th century, 2D topological data structures are historically well established, with structures like TIGER and GBF/DIME. Several 3D topological structures have been developed as well. Most of them by researchers (for example 3D FDS and SSS). No commercial geo-DBMS has implemented a 3D topological structure, until recently. 1Spatial has developed a 3D topological structure. This structure has been analyzed among other 2D and 3D structures (chapter 2). It is clear that the existing structures differ a lot. Some structures maintain a 3D primitive while others do not. Orientation is stored in different ways, the same applies for geometry and singularities. Some structures have quite some redundancy, while other structures have only a few relationships stored explicitly, which makes maintaining the structure harder. In spite of the many differences, the characteristics of, both 2D and 3D, topological structures are based on the same aspects: dimension, partition (including the universe), primitives (including their relationships), orientation, singularities and geometrical realization. Based on these main aspects, the requirements for the topological structure are defined in chapter 3 and a conceptual model is designed. The model consist of four primitives, which are related to each other by their (co)boundary relationships. These boundary relationships exact a full space partition, where every primitive involved, is part of a volume primitive. No isolated and dangling primitives are allowed. Next to the boundaries, especially the rings and the shells, orientation plays an important role within a topological structure and the geometrical realization. Single geometries have their dvantages, therefore single geometries and topological structures should be used together. Once the structure has been defined, validation rules need to be set. In order to validate a 3D topological structure, the involved volumes must be valid as well as the whole structure, which means the relationships between the volumes. Since no single definition of a valid 3D primitive is available, the rules are based on a few existing validation functions for 3D single geometries. No 3D topological validation function exists at the moment. Once the rules for a valid structure are set (chapter 4), the structure has been implemented into Oracle Spatial. The validation rules are translated into validation tests and implemented on this structure (chapter 5), as well as the geometry operations. In chapter 6, the structure, validation tests and geometry operations are tested with a test data set and evaluated.

Nowadays the field of geo-information is undergoing major changes, and the transition from 2D to 3D is having a major influence. A significant amount of 3D datasets are stored in the database. Experts are aware that new quality control mechanisms need to be built into the database systems in order to secure and guarantee high-performing data. Constraints are effective in providing solutions needed to avoid errors and enable maintenance of data quality. Whereas constraints for 2D geographic datasets have already been the subject of several research projects, studies into 3D geo-data constraints are largely unexplored. This thesis research discovers a new approach to model, conceptualise and implement 3D geo-constraints which can function in the database. At the outset, constraints can be formulated using natural language. As natural language is subjective and varies between individuals, expressions can be ambiguous and can easily cause confusion. So spatial constraints are abstracted using geometry that depicts the exact shape, and also topology that reveals the spatial relationship between geometries. This step makes the meaning of a constraint clearer to others. Furthermore, using standardised UML diagrams and OCL expressions, geo-constraints can be formalised to an extent that not only humans, but also machines can understand them. With model-driven architecture supported by various softwares, OCL expressions can be automatically converted to other models/executable codes (e.g. PL/SQL) just by a few clicks. And with small modifications, database triggers can be formulated to carry out constraints check. A database including various topographic objects (e.g. buildings, trees, roads, grass, water-bodies and terrains) is used as a study case to apply the discovered approach. During this research, a first attempt to formulate 3D geo-constraints in OCL has been made. These expressions can be tested and translated to other models/implementations when the OCL standard is extended with spatial types and operations. In the implementation stage, the current 3D functions in Oracle Spatial database are found to be insufficient. A new 3D function using existing 2D functions - plus additional code relating to computational geometry - has been developed by the author to bridge the gap. Based upon this function, a large group of spatial constraints which apply to objects in 3D space can be checked. Bentley Map and Python IDLE are used to test the performance of constraints as well as the visualisation of warning messages to clients. Database error messages are immediately displayed on the front-ends when a modification that does not satisfy a constraint is attempted to commit to the database. During the case study, new classes of constraints are also discovered. They are higher-level constraints, parameterised constraints, constraints allowing exceptional instances, extra-check rules to detect conflicting constraints and constraints relating to multi-scale representations.

Current topographic products are usually limited to a real world representation in only two dimensions, extended with some additional point heights and contour lines. Many environmental issues require more precision than analysis on 2D models can offer. At the same time, vast amounts of 3D data are becoming available due to emerging new data acquisition techniques, such as (terrestrial) laser scanning. To extend current models into the third dimension, a data structure is needed to load, update, query, analyse and especially validate the new 3D topographic data in a spatial DBMS. This dissertation presents a new topological approach to 3D data modelling, based on simplicial complexes. Operators and definitions from the field of simplicial homology are used to define and handle the is tetrahedral network (TEN). Simplicial homology provides a solid mathematical foundation for the data structure. The new database approach enables one to derive substantial parts of the data structure efficiently, thus tackling common drawbacks as TEN extensiveness and laboriousness of maintaining topology.

This Thesis describes the research process followed in order to achieve a development methodology applicable to the reform of cadastral systems with a legal basis. It was motivated by the author’s participation in one of the first surveying and mapping operations for a digital cadastre in Portugal, and the problems faced by the cadastre, and more generally, the Land Administration System in Portugal. After approaching Delft University of Technology (more specifically OTB Research Institute) with a research proposal mainly applied and restricted to the Portuguese cadastral situation, it was suggested to propose a new Cadastral Data Model, to be derived from the (then called) Core Cadastral Domain Model. This last model has evolved into the current Final Draft International Standard ISO 19152 - Land Administration Domain Model (LADM). The use of LADM as a fundamental contribution to the research, along with the participation in its development, allowed to expand from an applied and focused research context, to a more generic and widely applicable one. Although the main Case Study is still describing Land Administration in Portugal, the resulting development methodology equally benefited from the study of country models developed elsewhere in the World (Iceland, Queensland (Australia) and Canada (federal land)). The generic and worldwide nature of the LADM allowed thus to formulate the main aim and research question of this Thesis: How can a system development methodology support in a efficient and flexible manner the creation of an integrated legal Cadastre, while addressing the interrelations between the technical, legal and organisational aspects? The remaining paragraphs of the summary will report on how the resultant development methodology was obtained, as well as the actual products from the implementation test on the existent Portuguese Cadastral Model (hereafter referred as PT_CDM) leading to the single, most important outcome; the Portuguese country model, LADM_PT. Starting from the more generic concepts applied to the development methodology, the systems approach as applied to Land Registries, which recognizes different aspects under which the system can be examined and described (technical, legal, administrative and institutional), was the underlying concept for this Thesis, resulting from the contribution from (Zevenbergen, 2002). The technical aspects of an integrated legal cadastre, or more generically, a Land Administration System, were the ones that received greater attention. The software development life cycle methodology called Unified Process (UP) and the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) supplied the more important concepts and procedures to derive a specific country model from the domain model. Both sets of concepts (UP and MDA) were adapted and merged into the development methodology, taking into consideration the specifics of the different aspects of an integrated legal cadastre. The design of the different components (translated to UML packages in the country model) has used a number of existing standards and specifications from international organizations as ISO, the Open GIS Consortium (OGC), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Object Management Group (OMG). This way, it is heavily standards based. On the legal aspects, the most important input to the research was the Legal Model as developed by (Paasch, 2005). This provided an object-oriented view reflecting generic legal concepts, as abstracted from a number of Western Europe legal frameworks, and which can be applied (at least) to both countries with Civil Code and with Common Law based legislations. The administrative aspects were equally considered, namely by the integration of elements belonging to that component in LADM, with specific classes present in the Portuguese Cadastral Model. Additional UP products, which included UML defined elements such as the Use Case Model and related Activity Diagrams reflecting cadastral update procedures, were developed in complement to the country model. The main institutions related to a legal based cadastre, namely those related with the fundamental institution of Property and the related Real Rights, and those related to the cadastral surveying and mapping component, were studied and reported for the Case Study. Contribution from Social Sciences in the fields of institutional theory were considered, concerning the institution of Property. In particular, the ontology description of Property is compared to the Domain Model description, identifying its similarities and differences. The following list of items reports on the products developed by the application of the development methodology. It follows the steps to get from the non-compliant, existing Portuguese Cadastral Data Model (PT CDM) to the LADM based country profile LADM_PT. • Use Case Model, comprising a context and more aspect oriented Use Case Diagrams and the respective text templates. This is used to capture critical functional requirements, and constitutes a single inception iteration (according to UP). • Vision document, identifying which problems the system will solve; who are the target users; what the system will offer in terms of features, and a listing of non-functional requirements. This is a result of the inception phase. The scope of the vision document is centred on two core capabilities, described next. • Core Capability #1: Legal and Administrative component, covering the relation of Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities (RRR) to the Spatial Units, through the Basic Administrative Unit. The terms name core classes belonging to the Domain Model. • Core Capability #2: Geometric component, describing the organization of Spatial Units into different levels and considering geometry and topology constraints. This component specifies also cadastral surveying classes. • Iteration plan for the UP Elaboration phase, which considered separate iterations for the core capabilities, followed by an integration iteration. Each iteration comprises: A detailed Use Case; a Design Model; use of one or more LADM profiles (UML patterns); a complete design model; MDA transformations and ORM Mappings enabling the implementation into a spatial data base. • Transformation chain (MDA) for the integrated model, merging LADM with the legacy model and considering the LADM profiles. • Instance Level Diagrams, which document the application of the integrated model for a number of real life, concrete cases. • Model constraints collected into an OCL file (a formal constraint language), tested for syntax, and from which additional code can be derived. The fundamental contribution and answer to the main research question is thus the development methodology itself, whose products are referred above for the LADM_PT country model. But the research path followed to obtain this methodology provided other contributions, which are summarized in the following list. • Standards based modelling and development, namely considering geographic information (ISO 19000) series of international standards, OMG modelling standards for UML and OCL, or OGC standards in the spatial feature types. • Development and later inclusion in LADM of spatial unit and legal profiles, specified as UML patterns which can be used in order to derive other country models besides LADM PT. • Documentation of a series of specific Land Administration cases through the production of Instance Level Diagrams, which are annexed to the (ISO/TC211 Geographic Information / Geomatics, 2011).

75% or the “people to land relationships” worldwide are not documented. This concerns about 4.5 billion cases. With a growing population this situation results in land disputes, land grabbing and neglecting of rights of local people. Land Administration provides documentation on people to land relationships. Land Administration is an instrument for implementation of Land Policies - part of governmental policy on environmental sustainability, economic development, disaster management, social justice and equity and political stability. Land Administration is in support to legal security (protection of land rights), access to credit (collateral for mortgage or micro credit), spatial planning, land tax and resource management (mining, forestry, and nature). Many countries have an incomplete, not up to date and therefore non-reliable land administration. Standards are needed in Land Administration, both for initial data acquisition and for data maintenance. Experience learns that it is not an easy task to design and set up a land administration. In many countries modelling expertise to set up Land Administration Systems is lacking. It should be noted that those systems contain high volumes of data. In this thesis a common standard for the land administration domain is designed and proposed for implementation. Such a standard is in support to development of software applications and this will accelerate the development and implementation of proper land administration in support to sustainable development. The International Standard is expected to be published as ISO standard in August 2012, a breakthrough in the development of this type of systems. There is already recognition and support by FAO, UN HABITAT and several countries.

The use of geo-information is changing by the advent of new mobile devices, such as tablet-pc's that harness a lot of computing power. This type of information is more and more applied in mainstream digital consumer products, in a net-centric environment (i.e. dissemination takes place via the Internet) and the advances in mobile hardware also have changed the way people can interact with the geographic information at hand, compared to `old-fashioned' paper maps. However, current state-of-the-art solutions for storing, maintaining and disseminating digital maps still mimic the analogue map-series concept in the sense that for every map scale in the serie (e.g. 1:25K, 1:50K, 1:250K) a different digital copy with independent data is kept and maintained at the producers site. The challenge of this work was to get to a representation of the real world with gradually changing level of detail, instead of representations with discrete levels of detail (organised in multiple, independent layers, each layer representing only one resolution level). Vario-scale data structures try to avoid this redundancy of the geometric description of the map by storing references to composing map elements of the highest level of detail for any other element of a lower level of detail. An example of variable-scale data structures are the tGAP data structures. In addition to the geometry and references, an importance value for every object is stored and based on this importance value different representations (where the level of detail is gradually changing) can be derived on the fly from these structures according to the needed level of detail. The overall aim of this research has been to investigate variable-scale geo-information, by defining theoretical underpinnings of vario-scale geo-information and improving the initial tGAP structures. The objective we had with this research is expressed in the main question, which was formulated as: How can we realise improved vario-scale geo-information having minimal redundancy? The overall outline of the research design draws heavily upon the paradigm of design research. In an iterative fashion we performed theory building, prototype developments and experiments with real world data sets. Over the course of this research, we have made the following main contributions to the design of a vario-scale geo-information environment. We have: - formalised the concept of variable-scale data as a conceptual 3D model (the space-scale cube, SSC), where 2D space and 1D scale is integrated; - shown for the tGAP data structures how minimal data redundancy can be obtained when applying a merge operation, how to perform a parallel simplification of lines, without introducing unwanted topological errors and proposed a split operation, for which it was analysed what the impacts are on the designed data structures; - shown how to derive a 2D map from the structures with a particular number of objects, as well as investigated progressive data streaming; - proposed an improved way of generating data so that even smoother graphic transitions can be derived for visualisation. The main conclusions that can be drawn from these contributions: - With the concept of the proposed space-scale cube (SSC) we have formalised what vario-scale vector data entails. In a sense, the improved design of the tGAP data structures can be seen as a lossless encoding of the data that is captured for a ssc; - To make vario-scale geo-information operational, we need specific generalisation operations. These vario-scale generalisation operations should be designed carefully to be able to give guarantees on the amount of data to be stored and output topologically consistent vario-scale data; - Although the improved tGAP structures are capable of providing a smooth zooming end user experience, we still store and visualise discrete steps -- albeit smaller and more local than is common with current state of the art solutions. Therefore we proposed how smoothness of the vario-scale data can be improved (where the smooth SSC taking a small step in scale leads to a small change in the 2D derived map). A novelty of this approach is that, as it is one integrated space-scale partition, using a non-horizontal slice plane leads to a valid, mixed-scale planar partition: this is useful for use in 3D computer graphics (far away from an observer having less detail than close by). Although this research has generated some knowledge for a vario-scale environment, it also paves the way for future research. The main recommendations for future work are: - Investigate how to deal with very large data sets that do not fit in main memory (during the generalisation process or during visualisation) deserves attention; - The smooth encoding of the SSC has the same building challenge as the classic tGAP with respect to applying the right sequence of generalisation operators (remove or merge, collapse or split, simplify) to obtain maps with sufficient cartographic quality; - Another point for further research is the smooth interactions: it is of importance to know how users perceive these. The same holds for mixed-scale slices (in a 3D world); - Focus of this research has been mostly on obtaining and viewing vario-scale data. Performing analysis with vario-scale data is another interesting aspect that deserves attention, e.g. vario-scale data could be of help in data integration; - Investigate how to make the structures dynamic: currently the tGAP structure (including the new smooth variant) is a static structure and has to be re-built if the source data changes. Being able to perform incremental updates (partially re-generalising data for a new situation) would be beneficial if the data volume increases. Related to this is higher dimensionality of smooth, vario-scale data (e.g. 3D data) leading to integrated 5D data management (integrating dimensions of space (2D or 3D), time (updates, 1D) and scale (level of detail, 1D).

With the increase of the availability of large-scale geographic data set and the rise of widespread computer networks, such as the Internet, the need has arisen to be ableto transfer this data by means of these networks. The networks form the basis for a Geographic Information Infrastructure (GII), in which data users, data providers and data producers are connected with each other.There also exists the need to offer this data on several scales to end users, for example to get an overview of an area first. Because the geographical information are now sent by the computer networks and large-scale geographic information brings many data, data reduction must take place. This is to prevent that sending of the information takes too much time. Generalization of geographical information is a possible means to let this reduction take place.Generalization is the selection and simplification of detail appropriate to the scaleand or purpose of the map. The appliance of generalization demands that choices mustbe made with respect to which geographical objects are selected and simplified and how this selection and simplification must take place. Moreover, also the surroundings of the objects to be generalized, are often taken into account in the generalization process, which makes that the complete process even requires more time. This way, the complete process can not be carried out in real time.Earlier, reactive data structures, in which geographical information is stored in the computer with several levels of detail, have been proposed as a solution to allow the use of generalized large-scale geographical information in real time. So far, these data structures were using redundancy with respect to geometry. For this reason a new conceptual model has been developed, where a number of existing data structures have been combined into two new data structures, namely, the GAP face tree and the GAP edge forest (described in Van Oosterom, 2005). The complete structure is termed tGAP structure, inwhich tGAP stands for topological Generalized Area Partitioning.The tGAP structure has not been theoretically verified, nor implemented or tested. Therefore, the objective of this research is to theoretically verify the data structures and to test the data structures considering requirements such as loading time and storage capacity.To reach the objective literature study has been performed in the field of generalization, database management systems and the data structures. Moreover, a prototype has been built, with which the data structures have been implemented in a mainstream database management system (DBMS) with spatial data types. Literature study has shown that generalization is a key issue in the complete process of obtaining and processing geo-information and that using reactive data structures is asuitable option to offer the results of generalization within a GII in real time.The implementation of a prototype has shown, that it is possible to implement thedata structures in a mainstream DBMS. The data structures are implemented in Oracle Spatial, the DBMS, and by means of Apache, a web server, opened up to Google Earth, a geographical viewer. The data structures in the prototype make it possible to view thegeographical data interactively within the viewer independent from the size of the area to be loaded.The final conclusion must be, that with some workarounds and with some changes tothe proposed conceptual model, it is possible to implement the model as described in (Van Oosterom, 2005). With an implementation it becomes possible to show geographical data on a variable number of detail levels and the implementation shows that the data structures can provide the desired data reduction within a GII in real time.

The master of science thesis project called "The Land Administration Domain Model 'Survey Package' and Model Driven Architecture" will be described and concluded in this report. The main subjects for the research are the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM), specifically the Survey Package, dealing with survey measurements. Secondly, the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), a software design methodology to generate platform specific information systems based on platform independent models, specified in the Unified Modelling Language (UML) and the Object Constraint Language (OCL). A custom developed MDA Prototype has been developed, aiming at the implementation of the Adapted LADM 'Survey Package' in a PostgreSQL/PostGIS object-relational database. Thirdly, an analysis of the quality of the Dutch cadastral map is performed, based on data loaded into this the Adapted LADM 'Survey Package' PostGIS database.

This thesis is about the visualization of a Tetrahedral Irregular Network (TEN) in a web client. A tetrahedron is the simplest geometric form in 3D space, a pyramid with a triangular ground face. Its four points can lie anywhere in the 3D space as long as they do not lie on one plane. 3D objects can be composed from multiple tetrahedra. In a fully partitioned TEN even air and soil are modeled with tetrahedra. Most GIS analyses on a TEN can be deducted to an operation on the triangle simplex, therefore 3D analysis on A TEN is relatively easy compared to analysis on another 3D data structures. Chapter one (Introduction) gives an overview of the background of the research, the objectives, the requirements and the research methodology. In Chapter two (Data models for 3D geo-information) the theory around 3D data modeling is given. It starts with an explanation of the 3D feature components. In the next part, there is a comparison of 3D data representations and 3D data models and a conclusion is drawn why the TEN is the best data model. In the next paragraphs, theory on the TEN data models is given as well as theory on the derived 3D TIN and ‘TEN view’ data model. In addition, this chapter gives information how to build up a TEN dataset, about 3D topology and a comparison is made how 3D spatial (TEN) data can be stored in a database. Chapter three (Prototype related technology) gives information about XML based standards to exchange and visualize 3D and 2D data and about any other technologies that are used in the prototype made for this thesis. In Chapter four (Review of 3D GIS applications on the web) a number of 3D web GIS prototypes are discussed which have been created in the last decennium. In addition to a description of them, the prototypes are compared on a number of features and a feasibility review is done of each prototype. Some prototypes are picked out and a conclusion is made which are the best prototype examples for the development of the prototype of this thesis. In Chapter five (Prototype architecture) first the preliminary draft of the prototype is discussed. Secondly, the chapter gives a schematic overview of the realized architecture and a description of the main components and techniques of the prototype. Thirdly, the steps that have been taken over time to develop the prototype are listed. In Chapter six (Prototype components, dataset and techniques) first each component of the prototype web application is described which are a 3D view, a 2D view, a Table view, a Titlebar and an SQL box. Secondly, information is given about the datasets that have been used. Thirdly, each technique used in the prototype is explained in detail In addition some techniques that are not implemented in the prototype are discussed too. Chapter seven (Evaluation and conclusion) starts with an evaluation. First, a comparison is made which XML based language is best for 3D TEN visualization: X3D, KML, or CityGML. Secondly is reviewed in which way the data can best be stored in the database. Thirdly is compared whether it is best to visualize the TEN, 3D TIN, or TEN view. As fourth, the architecture is discussed. In the next part of Chapter six (Summary and conclusion) each sub question as stated in the Chapter one is answered. In addition, an answer is given on the main research question. Finally, remarks are made regarding feature research and recommendations.

Disasters caused by human action or nature are part of life. Preventing disasters from occurring is often not possible. Lives can be saved or lost depending on our response to the disaster. Determining the fastest route to the people in need is therefore important. The determination of this fastest route is however not straight forward, since the environment the route is determined in has become chaotic as a result of the disaster. In this research attention focuses on ways to take the circumstances in the environment into consideration in an automated way. A distinction is made between changes that can be predicted and changes that cannot be predicted. Based on literature the latter turns out to be done best by choosing a process of re-evaluating the route determined. Based on the degree of dynamism a static, semi-static, iterative or dynamic approach can be taken to this re-evaluation. In a static approach the route is determined only once based on the most current information at that time. When the circumstances change re-evaluation of that determined route can take place every time a change occurs (semi-static), every couple of minutes (iterative) or constantly (dynamic). In this research a preference was given to use a combination between the semi-static and the iterative approach. This results in a re-evaluation after a number of changes have occurred and if there are only little changes the re-evaluation should take place after a set time. The incorporation of predictions in the algorithm is a second focus area. By incorporating predictions one is able to anticipate changes to the network and take them into consideration in the route determination process. Incorporating predictions on plume movement and bridge openings and closings introduces also a need to balance between travelling extra kilometres and waiting. To investigate the implications of incorporating predictions into the routing process a routing algorithm was designed. The Dijkstra algorithm was adapted to read the closing times from a file and decide whether it is better to wait or take an alternative route. Tests show that the estimation of travel times are more accurate when these are created with the algorithm that incorporates predictions into the routing process. Based on this research it is concluded that using the adapted algorithm routes can be determined that will prove to be faster and safer than the result of a shortest path calculation based only on the travel costs in the network.

Web based multimodal travel planners are able to generate adequate travel advises for the public transport using timetable information. These travel advises are nowadays lacking detailed pedestrian route advises for the walking parts of a journey. This research focuses on developing a 3D geo data model to support pedestrian route finding for access, change and egress public transport in multimodal travel advises. The research studies the suitability of Oracle spatial 11g to find walk routes in such geo data models. It focus on geo data models to support finding an optimal route for the individual public transport traveller taking into account his specific preferences and constrains (e.g. wheelchair) for the pedestrian part of the journey in a travel advise. Travel time and time pressure, physical effort safety and conform personnel characteristics and vicinity are seen as important aspects of an optimal route. A literature study is done on existing standards and models to investigate approaches to develop such a 3D geo data model. Based on this literature study a new conceptual geo data model is developed to support pedestrian routing in multimodal travel advises. It uses, similar as in a navigable space model (Slingsby, Raper 2008) a model representing 3D spaces only by their lower surfaces. A Stop Place Model (IFOPT 2007) is taken for it semantics describing and indentifying these spaces relevant for pedestrian routing related to public transport. To persist the geometrical aspects of these lower surfaces in a spatial database the geo data model uses simple feature (OGC 1999) surfaces. The model supports modelling of multiple layered floors and traffic areas which can be seen by a traveller on which “walking around” is possible. It also supports virtual surfaces “hidden paths” with are predefined logic connecting route areas on these floors and traffic areas. As in existing models (Lee 2004) (Stevens, Choi 2006) adjacency and connectivity of spaces are modelled with networks. The developed pedestrian model is new because attributes and behaviour of networks and surfaces are integrated. Important in this geo data model is that no difference is made between in modelling indoor and outdoor spaces. The lower surfaces representing spaces are modelled as objects inherit attributes and behaviour from nodes in a network and therefore called NodeSurfaces. Every NodeSurface is seen as possible connection for a route choice for an optimal pedestrian route. These possible pedestrian connections are modelled by combining connecting NodeSurfaces and using simple feature multiSurface to model it geometrical aspects. In this geo data model these multi surfaces are describing the potential pedestrian connections with attributes and behaviour from links in networks. Important characteristics of this multiSurface (“LinkSurfaces”) are the direction (including up/down in 3D), the accessibility and pedestrian duration for a specific traveller. A prototype implementing this new geo data model in Oracle 11g was developed. To illustrate and evaluate the new model surfaces relevant in a simple bus stop and a multimodal transport interchange where drawn in Google SketchUp and exported to KML files. These 3D surfaces where used as dataset for optimal route finding in the prototype. This research evaluates this prototype to evaluate the feasibility and suitability of the new geo data model. This prototype was also used to evaluate in suitability of Oracle spatial 11g to find walk routes in such pedestrian models. The results of the conceptual model are promising especially when modelling hidden paths. It was possible to implement the geo data model in Oracle 11g. Oracle 11g network shortest route capabilities for logical network turned out to be suitable for finding the optimal route for individual travellers with specific speed and accessibility properties. Due to the limitation that Oracle 11G does not support 3D distance calculation in geographic 3D all distances in pedestrian speed calculation were done on the geodetic surface. Optimal pedestrian routes where exported to KML files and visualisation was done with Google earth. Limitations were found for visualisation of surfaces below ground level (underpasses). The concepts of LinkSurfaces used to represent 3D pedestrian spaces in the proposed geo data models worked well in the prototype. This concept combing characteristics from links in a network and characteristic from OGC simple feature multi surfaces, is a simple, effective and well structured way to represent complex 3D spaces used by pedestrian routes in a geo data model.

The main objective of this research project was to assess the quality and feasibility of the guidelines for INSPIRE Network Services. The completeness, clarity, consistency and ease-of implementation of the guidelines were considered. Part of this assessment is also the question: how can INSPIRE compliance be tested and measured? The topic was tackled both from a theoretical and a practical point of view. The theoretical part of the project included a detailed investigation and assessment of the INSPIRE requirements and recommendations as regards: technical architecture of the services, functionality of the particular network services, quality of services, rights management issues, elements of spatial data and metadata models. This part of the project has been finalized with the synthesis of the guidelines derived from the INSPIRE documentation. The review of the INSPIRE documents showed that these guidelines are specific and clear enough in most points, however not yet complete. The status of work as regards the technical guidelines for particular INSPIRE Network Services is different. The topic which calls for particular attention is the adaptation of the INSPIRE services to SOAP bindings. Another item that is needed and that is currently missing in the guidelines is the provision of more strict rules for compliance testing (Abstract Test Suites (ATS) for INSPIRE services and data) and quality of service (QoS) testing. The practical part of the project was the implementation of some prototype View and Download services. For the implementation of the prototype services existing software was chosen, namely GeoServer, one of the spatial data server products implementing the OGC standards. The specific scenario chosen for the case study are web services for a national park. The spatial data for the prototype was acquired from the resources of the Narew National Park (Poland). The prototype was realized in order to validate and evaluate whether the Implementing Rules and other guidelines contained all necessary information to set up INSPIRE compliant web services, with special attention to the question how this ‘compliance’ can be measured using both manual and automated testing methods. First, the prototype has been evaluated for the compliance with INSPIRE guidelines by manual inspection of the prototype services. Secondly, the compliance test methodology proposed by OGC has been used to perform automated tests on the GeoServer instance. The evaluation of the prototype showed that the web services provided with GeoServer fulfill the majority of requirements for View/Download Services through the WMS/WFS functionalities (mandatory operation parameters, offered output formats etc.) Some elements need to be configured within GeoServer (e.g. the required spatial reference system, layer/feature type names that conform to the INSPIRE data specifications). Still, some INSPIRE-specific extensions to the functionality provided by GeoServer are needed for both services (support of the SOAP/POST methods for the service operations, solutions for multilingual aspects of services and rights management). Another requirement for the INSPIRE-conformant web services is that the spatial data and metadata are provided compliant with the data models required by INSPIRE. The study on compliance testing methodologies is followed by the recommendation that the standards and testing programs from ISO and OGC can be of particular relevance for the development of Abstract Test Suites for INSPIRE services. The reference framework for INSPIRE compliance testing can be partially based on the OGC Compliance & Interoperability Testing & Evaluation Initiative (CITE) testing program. The OGC tests are especially suitable as reference since the core technical specifications for implementation of the particular INSPIRE Network Services are the OGC web services specifications.

De afstudeeronderzoek is gericht op de vraag 'Hoe kan een 3D-GIS voor grootschalige toepassingen worden opgezet. De nadruk ligt hierbij niet op visualisatie, maar op de opslag van de gegevens en op de analysegereedschappen in drie dimensies. Visualisatie is wel van invloed op met name de opslag van driedimensionale gegevens. Er bestaan verschillende technieken om objecten geometrisch te modelleren. Veel van deze technieken zijn bedoeld voor CAD-toepassingen en voor visualisatie. Voor toepassing in een 3D-GIS zijn de meest geschikte objectrepresentaties:: Boundary Representation (B-Rep); Cell Decomposition; Spatial Occupancy Enumeration (SOE). De keuze uit bovenstaande opsomming is afhankelijk van het doel van de representatie. Voor een algemene driedimensionale GIS, waarin zowel bewerking als visualisatie van de 3D gegevens wenselijk is, is een bijzondere vorm van Cell Decomposition, namelijk het Tetrahedral Network (TEN)) het meest geschikt. Een TEN is een datastructuur waarbij de objecten opgebouwd worden uit niet-overlappende tetrars en is de tegenhanger van Triangular Irregular Networks (TIN). De TEN heeft de voordelen, dat vrijwel elike vorm te benaderen is, dat een snelle visualisatie mogelijk is, en dat de operaties op en met objecten gemodelleerd in een TEN gemakkelijk zijn. De topologische structuur van een TEN is sterker dan bij de B/Rep, SOE en Cell Decomposition met willekeurig gevormde cellen, omdat de cellen eenvormig zijn en de relaties tussen naburige cellen en hun elementen, en tussen de elementen van een individuele cel vastliggen, evenals het onderscheid tussen interieur, grens en exterieur. Een GIS-datastructuur moet naast geometrie en topologie ook thematische informatie vastleggen. Een 3D GIS stelt bovendien de eis, dat de gegevensstructuur de opslag van een verschillend aantal abstractieniveaus (Levels-of-Detail) mogelijk maakt. Een objectgeoriënteerde structuur voldoet aan die eisen. In dit afstudeeronderzoek is de buffer als analysegereedschap verder uitgewerkt, omdat vertaling naar drie dimensies een aparte benadering behoeft. Het genereren van een 3D buffer verdient grotere aandacht omdat het afstandsverschil tussen een ideal en een gegenereerde buffer, dus het verschil tussen twee volumes, in drie dimensies optreedt. Het genereren van een 3D buffer op basis van een TEN is zowel voordelig bij de constructie zelf, als bij de verdere verwerking, omdat de buitenwereld van een object in een TEN bekend is. De theoretische opbouw van een 3D bufer is getest door een buffelalgoritme te programmeren m.b.v. CGAL (Computiational Geometry Algorithms Library). Het programma laat zien dat de theorie klopt en dat een 3D afgeronde buffer met een simpele code te genereren is voor een object dat gemodelleerd is in een TEN. Hier bewijst het nut van een sterke topologie zich.

Accurate postal code maps have many applications within GIS as the postal code has the potential to link the address description of buildings to their location in a specified global reference system in a more natural way. This relationship is possible in both directions: geocoding and reverse-geocoding. These operators demand a mechanism for translating an exact geometric position (i.e., WGS84 coordinate) into a location indication (town, street, house number) and vice versa. As most built-up parcels are provided with a postal code, this indicator can be used as the linkage. This thesis describes the procedure, based on the Dutch cadastral registration, to obtain a reliable 6-position (i.e., 2628BX, the highest level of detail possible) planar postal code map for the Netherlands. Problems with existing, Voronoi-diagram based, postal code maps, like intersected houses and arbitrary derived (and thus unrecognizable) boundaries are avoided. The reliability of the derived planar postal code map is discussed and results are illustrated by figures. For a planar coverage, non built-up parcels having no postal code should be assigned a plausible postal code. Furthermore special attention is given to infrastructural parcels. These parcels are divided at their (approximated) skeletons first and then these subdivided infrastructure parcels are piecewise attached to their neighbour parcels. This new approach results in very reliable postal code maps, which are visually attractive too as infrastructure lines can be recognized. The procedure is generic and can be applied to other administrative parcel information as well. The algorithm is implemented using the Computational Geometry Algorithms Library (CGAL), and the possibilities and limitations of this library are addressed as well. Also a number of non-implemented alternatives or improvements are given.

The objective of this thesis is answering the following question: How can 3D spatial objects be modelled (i.e. /stored, validated, queried) in a Geo-DBMS using 3D primitives and how can these objects be visualised? To answer this question the theory from various literature is used to create a prototype implementation of a 3D primitive in a Geo-DBMS. 3D Spatial objects are stored with the polyhedron as (3D) primitive. This primitive is easy for users to model objects, can fairly easily be validated, because the algorithms are not too difficult to implement and still result in realistic objects. Each polyhedron has a set of faces, which consist of a set of ordered nodes. These nodes point to a vertex (x,y,x). This means that the data model is geometric with internal topology. Th epolyhedron is stored within the original Oracle Spatial geometry data model. The validation occurs by checking if the polyhedra are stored correctly and after that checking each characteristic of the polyhedra. These characteristics are: flat faces, should bound one volume, simplicit faces and orientable. The improve the performance of queries, a spatial index should be made on a table with polyhedra. The standard Oracle Spatial indices can be used, because of the way the polyhedra are stored in the Oracle Spatial geometry model. A bounding box is constructed around the 3D line or its projection in case of a 2D spatial index. A test shows that it is preferable to create a 3D spatial index (3D R-tree) rather than a 2D spatial index, to get maximal query performance. Using functions that are part of Oracle Spatial, is not suitable for 3D objects, because these functions work with the 2D projection of the 3D objects. Instead, some of the most commonly used functions (e.g. area, volume, point-in-polyhedron and bounding box) are implemented in 3D, so that functions return a realistic value. The polyhedra can be visualised in GIS and CAD programs that can make a DBMS connection. To do this, the polyhedra have to be exported to 3D multi-polygons. This export function is implemented, as is the import function that makes a polyhedron from a 3D multi-polygon. To visualise polyhdra in a VRML viewer, the objects in the database can be exported to a VRML file. This function is implemented, as is the function to make a polyhedron from a VRML object. These concousions together satify the goal to implement a 3D primitive in a Geo-DBMS in a way that improves the maintainability of 3D spatial data and opens the door to more realistic applications.

There is an increasing need for organisations to perform on demand geoprocessing tasks by integrating and reusing distributed geo-information and geo-services (typically provided as services on the web, such as interactive maps, route planners and geometric transformations). To enable sensible integration, computers require to operate with formal semantics of the services involved, making explicit the meaning of the service content. The research presented in the thesis provides solutions for the computer-aided integration of distributed heterogeneous geo-information and geo-services, based on their semantics. This is achieved by formally describing the geoservices with ontological concepts and reasoning with them in Description Logics. The target groups of this research are firstly geo-information engineers who are confronted with information integration issues and service interoperability issues, and secondly, information engineers in general confronted with distributed information and with end-users that need to access distributed services as one virtual application.