On the classification of environmental data in the Bavarian Environment Information System using an object-oriented approach

Abstract

In hardly any other area is the availability of regional developmentdata of such great importance as it is in the sector of environmentalprotection and conservation. Therefore it is the aim of everyenvironmental information system to provide relevant data collectionsfor legislative bodies and the daily administrative work. In thiscontext, environmental information systems are mainly represented by theorganisational cooperation of data collections by specializedinformation systems. We are talking about organisational cooperation forthat reason, because the required data should be accessible, but on theother hand must remain with the authorities responsible for thespecialized information. The current technology of data processingsupports these requirements of divided processing. The information wherecertain data can be found and processed under which qualitative andquantitative conditions is the core of the system. This requires acommon denominator by the classification und determination of a commonvocabulary. This means for information systems that the `'language'' andthe `'grammar'' must clearly be defined and known to the user. On thebasis of these language patterns the dialogue with the user is organisedand supported. For this reason, the importance of a thesaurus and of adata model as the basis of a common language is given specialimportance. Besides the specialist context the possibilities ofanalyzing the data also depend upon object reference: in oru context wedefine objects as elements of databases, which contain data andprocession instructions. Their classification scheme follows thecriteria of the object reference, because besides the contentdescription there is a definition how to deal with the data to beanalyzed. The references related to extremely different contents andrules how to deal with the data, it was obvious to classify thosereferences as aspects of the objects `'reference''. The contentclassification of data according to the topic or specialist origins andpotential usability, is the aspect of structuring the data. The questionof the position of the data within the database regarding to thetechnical procedure shows the way to an object-related classificationaad storage of data. Using a simple mathematic model, the followingessay demonstrates, that the object-related classification of data is animportant supplement to the data itself: further more the paper pointsout several possibilities of an object-oriented client servertechnology.