GEOLIS: A Logical Information System for Geographical Data

Today, the thematic layer is still the prevailling structure in geomatics for handling geographical information. However, the layer model is rigid: it implies partitionning geographical data in predefined categories and using the same description schema for all elements of a layer. Recently, Logical Information Systems (LIS) introduced a new paradigm for information management and retrieval. Using LIS, we propose a more flexible organisation of vectorial geographical data at a thiner level since it is centered on the geographical feature. LIS does not rely on a hierarchical organisation of information, and enable to tightly combine querying and navigation in a same search. In this article, we present a work in progress about the use of LIS model to handle geographical data. In particular, we detail a data model for geographical features and the corresponding querying and navigation model. These models have been implemented in the GEOLIS prototype, which has been used to lead experiments with real data.