Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 5
Analyses of the question of scenario 3 (comparison between the proposed 3D metadata
and CGDI discovery portal)
Analyses
Question
What software environment(s) has (or have) been used to create the
3D content of the dataset?
The proposed 3D metadata
CGDI discovery portal
Explicit?
Ye s
Ye s
Conceptual integrity/limits • Specific on the nature of the
process by distinguishing
3D geometric modeling from
classical cartography
• Is not specific on the nature
of the process as 3D
modeling and cartography
are not distinguished
Syntactic integrity/limits • Multiplicity allowed
• 3D modeling background by
enumerated
Procedure Type
and free-text
Software
Name
,
Version
, and
Applied Function
properties of
Geometric
Modeling Background
class
•
Manipulation Background
class for documenting every
precedent cartographic step
• Multiplicity allowed
• Limited to one summary-type
field
related to “3D model”. One assumption is that many users describe or search 3D
models according to specific software environments because of the functionali-
ties developed on top of them or institutional preferences. Many of the software
environments advocate proprietary algorithms, trends, functions, and 3D modeling
procedures and the question is not limited to format. In fact, the users of the same
format may use different methods and functions to reconstruct 3D objects and
look for the datasets which conform to their knowledge. Therefore, the following
question is posed to simulate such 3D data discovery trend:
• What software environment(s) has (or have) been used to create the 3D content
of the dataset? (analyses in Table
5
)
5.1 Discussion on the Evaluation Scenarios
The investigated scenarios analyse the capabilities of each metadata against certain
practical demands for discovering suitable 3D geospatial datasets. The suitability
factors were concluded from the respective context of each scenario (academic
and industrial quotes). In brief, these scenarios demonstrate three major categories
of difference between the compared metadata:
• Conceptual novelties of the proposed 3D metadata
- In Scenario 1, the proposed 3D metadata introduces shape as one of the con-
textual components of the 3rd dimension. The
CTXT_3D
class adds the 3rd
dimension to metadata as a new definite concept.
