Multilevel modeling of geographic information systems based on international standards

Even though different applications based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide different features and functions, they all share a set of common concepts (e.g., spatial data types, operations, services), a common architecture, and a common set of technologies. Furthermore, common structures appear repeatedly in different GIS, although they have to be specialized in specific application domains. Multilevel modeling is an approach to model-driven engineering (MDE) in which the number of metamodel levels is not fixed. This approach aims at solving the limitations of a two-level metamodeling approach, which forces the designer to include all the metamodel elements at the same level. In this paper, we address the application of multilevel modeling to the domain of GIS, and we evaluate its potential benefits. Although we do not present a complete set of models, we present four representative scenarios supported by example models. One of them is based on the standards defined by ISO TC/211 and the Open Geospatial Consortium. The other three are based on the EU INSPIRE Directive (territory administration, spatial networks, and facility management). These scenarios show that multilevel modeling can provide more benefits to GIS modeling than a two-level metamodeling approach.