Abstract. A large volume of data with complex structures is currently represented in GML (Geography Markup Language) for storing and exchanging geographic information. As the size and complexity of such documents and their schemas grow, techniques and rules for designing and creating such documents become indispensable. This paper introduces a method for mapping geographic conceptual specifications (defined in OMT-G) to GML Schema. Our method avoids semantic or structural losses and provides redundancy-free data. It also reduces the use of integrity constraints and improves the nesting of XML elements in the resulting schema. We have implemented the method in order to automate the process of obtaining the target schema from the original geographic model. Experimental results show that spatial and non-spatial queries over the GML documents created from schemas generated using our method are more efficient than on documents created with a traditional, direct mapping process.
André C. Hora, Clodoveu A. Davis Jr., Mirel