Exploring object-oriented GIS for watershed resource management

The adoption of object-oriented programming for spatial technological advancement is an emerging trend in GIS. This research seeks to explore Object-Oriented GIS (OOGIS) and its potential application in watershed resource management. OOGIS provides a more intuitive and realistic abstraction of real world features as intelligent objects. The ability to embed behavior, geometry, and attribution with the objects provides considerable advantages in the processing and analysis of geospatial data. The main objective of this research was to design a prototype OOGIS for watershed resource management using the object relational Arclnfo 8.1 Geodatabase. The study builds on the OOGIS concepts of inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation and defines a schema for the project. Behavior is embedded in the watershed features through the use of methods and reflex methods that automatically perform functions such as data validation and text placement. Message propagation is tested using related objects, and a smart object-based topologically integrated geometric network is established for streams and roads. Because of the embedded topological relationships and methods this network is self-adapting. The resulting system indicates that OOGIS has many advantages over the more traditional entity-relationship model. The system provides a more intuitive representation of a watershed through the integration of intelligent behaviors and is particularly effective in addressing GIS maintenance issues at a database level through the use of reflex validation methods

Model-based dependability analysis : state-of-the-art, challenges and future outlook

Abstract: Over the past two decades, the study of model-based dependability analysis has gathered significant research interest. Different approaches have been developed to automate and address various limitations of classical dependability techniques to contend with the increasing complexity and challenges of modern safety-critical system. Two leading paradigms have emerged, one which constructs predictive system failure models from component failure models compositionally using the topology of the system. The other utilizes design models - typically state automata - to explore system behaviour through fault injection. This paper reviews a number of prominent techniques under these two paradigms, and provides an insight into their working mechanism, applicability, strengths and challenges, as well as recent developments within these fields. We also discuss the emerging trends on integrated approaches and advanced analysis capabilities. Lastly, we outline the future outlook for model-based dependability analysis

Video on the semantic web: experiences with media streams

In this paper, we report our experiences with the use of SemanticWeb technology for annotating digital video material.Web technology is used to transform a large, existing video ontology embedded in an annotation tool into a commonly accessible format. The recombination of existing video material is then used as an example application, in which the video metadata enables the retrieval of video footage based on both content descriptions and cinematographic concepts, such as establishing and reaction shots. The paper focuses on the practical issues of porting ontological information to the Semantic Web, the multimedia-specific issues of video annotation, and requirements for Semantic Web query and access patterns. It thereby explicitly aims at providing input to the two new W3C Semantic Web Working Groups (Best Practices and Deployment; Data Access)