Modeling Topological Constraints in Spatial Part-Whole Relationships

To facilitate development of spatial applications, we investigate the problem of modeling topological constraints in part-whole relationships between spatial objects, where the related objects may themselves be composite. An example would be countries that belong to a supranational organization, where the countries are themselves composed of states. Current topological classification schemes are restricted to simple, bounded, regular, and/or 0-2D spatial data types; do not support the set-based topological constraints required to describe inter-part relationships such as those between members of a supranational organization; and focus primarily on query rather than design. We propose an approach to modeling topological relationships that allows specification of binary and set-based topological constraints on composite spatial objects. This approach does not depend on restricting the type of spatial objects, can be used to describe part-whole and inter-part relationships, and is at a level of detail suitable for use in conceptual modeling.