FieldGML: An alternative representation for fields

Abstract

While we can affirm that the representation, storage and exchange of twodimensional objects (vector data) in GIS is solved (at least if we consider the de facto standards shapefile and GML), the same cannot be said for fields. Among the GIS community, most people assume that fields are synonymous with raster structures, and thus only representations for these are being used in practice (many formats exist) and have been standardised. In this paper, I present a new GML-based representation for fields in 2D and 3D, one that permits us to represent not only rasters, but also fields in any other forms. This is achieved by storing the original samples of the field, alongside the interpolation method used to reconstruct the field. The solution, called Field- GML, is based on current standards, is flexible, extensible and is also more appropriate than raster structures to model the kind of datasets found in GIS-related applications. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.