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Re: [galeon] Features and Coverages

If you don't choose 'earth realm' but go with a named geographic area, I would have two recommendations: (a) pick the smallest represented area that is appropriate, and (b) reference the name in a gazetteer that lets you define metadata about your name (location, at minimum corners in all dimensions, but better is a shape or volume; relationship to other entries; synonyms; description) and specify it with a resolvable URI. This takes care of most of the unpleasantness associated with simple names of geographic regions or volumes. 

John



On Oct 7, 2008, at 11:58 AM, Steve Hankin wrote:




Ben Domenico wrote:

[...snip...]
Others may disagree with me on this, but the other documents I find helpful in understanding these feature/coverage concepts are those of OGC Observations and Measurements. 

http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/om
In particular they define "features of interest," examples of which might be the Indian Ocean or the atmosphere above London. This sort of feature fits will into metoceans community which models such entities in terms of functions governed by the equations of fluid dynamics. 
Hi Ben,
Not to join the discussion in its essence, but a digression to share an experience regarding the application of "Feature of Interest". In the NOAA IOOS efforts (i.e. in the context of the coastal oceans) to define an XML application schema suitable for SOS this topic came up. Agreement on what the "Feature of Interest" was became elusive in some cases, because the scope of interest by the final user of the data is often ambiguous. If we place a mooring in the shelf region off Fudge Point, Hartstine Island, Washington, in Case Inlet in southern Puget Sound is the feature of interest 
Fudge Point shelf?
Hartstine Island beaches?
Case Inlet?
South Puget Sound?
Puget Sound?
US NorthWest Pacific Coast
If there is a clear guideline on how to blend ones gazetteer with the "Feature of Interest" to resolve this ambiguity, our folks in IOOS didn't find it. Might this be another example where the continuous nature of the medium (ocean or atmosphere), renders otherwise straightforward GIS concepts fuzzy? 

    - Steve