Tim@CIS.UPENN.EDU.UUCP (07/24/86)
Forwarded From: Glenda Kent <Glenda@upenn> on Thu 24 Jul 1986 at 14:40
FORMAL SPECIFICATION OF GEOGRAPHIC DATA PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS
Gruia-Catalin Roman
Department of Computer Science
Washington University
This presentation discusses a formal foundation for the specification of
Geographic Data Processing (GDP) requirements. The emphasis is placed on
modelling data and knowledge requirements rather than processing needs. A
subset of first order logic is proposed as the principal means for constructing
formalizations of the GDP requirements in a manner that is independent of the
data representation. Requirements executability is achieved by selecting a
subset of logic compatible with the inference mechanisms available in Prolog.
GDP significant concepts such as time, space and accuracy have been added to
the formalization without losing concepts such as time, space and accuracy have
been added to the formalization without losing Prolog implementability or
separation of concerns. Rules of reasoning about time, space and accuracy
(based on positional, temporal and fuzzy logic) may be compactly stated in a
subset of second order predicate calculus and may be easily modified to meet
the particular needs of a specific application. Multiple views of the data and
knowledge may coexist in the same formalization. The feasibility of the
approach has been established with the aid of a tentative Prolog implementation
of the formalism. The implementation also provides the means for graphical
rendering of logical information on a high resolution color display.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported in part by Defense Mapping Agency
and by Rome Air Development Center under contract F30602-83-K-0065. The full
text of this presentation is available in "Formal Specification of Geographic
Data Processing Requirements," Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference
on Data Engineering, (Outstanding Paper Award), pp. 434-446, February 1986.