Spatial Location Schemas

The following descriptive schemas lay out the ways in which our geographic primitives can be deployed to model, spatially, the various geographic entity types we support.

Questions:

  • Should we make BOX a legal geometric representation for anything, in absence of better data? This would permit at least gridding, and might encourage contribution of information about features whose exact location is being protected against looting by the excavators or national authorities?

Physical Sites

Sites are point-ish

Types

  • cape
  • cave mouth
  • hill or mountain summit
  • spring
  • whirlpool

Geometric Components

location (required)
location of the site. POINT.

Built Sites

Types

  • findspot
  • lighthouse
  • tumulus
  • well

Geometric Components

location (required)
location of the site. POINT.

Built Places

Types

  • cemetery
  • church
  • estate
  • fort
  • mine
  • monument
  • port
  • production-center
  • settlement-ancient
  • settlement-desert
  • settlement-modern
  • spa
  • station

Geometric Components

center (required)
location of the region. POINT.
extent (optional)
polygon enveloping the region. POLYGON.

Transit Points

Types

  • bridge
  • pass
  • water-wheel

Geometric Components

center (required)
location of the transit point's center. POINT.
orientation (optional)
alignment of the axis of transit. ?????.

Linear Features (Built)

Types

  • aqueduct
  • canal
  • dam
  • road
  • tunnel
  • wall

Geometric Components

centerline (required)
approximate backbone or centerline of feature. POLYLINE.
extent (optional)
envelope for extent of feature. POLYGON.

Linear Features (Physical)

Types

  • river
  • cliffs

Geometric Components

centerline (required)
approximate backbone or centerline of feature. POLYLINE.

Physical Regions

Types

  • coast
  • mountain-range
  • valley

Geometric Components

axis (required)
approximate backbone or centerline of feature. POLYLINE.
extent (optional)
envelope for grouped watersheds, extent of feature. POLYGON.

Cultural Regions

Types

  • people, tribe, etc

Geometric Components

axis (required)
approximate backbone or centerline of feature. POLYLINE.
extent (optional)
envelope for grouped watersheds, extent of feature. POLYGON.

Areal Features

Types

  • bay
  • centuriation
  • forest
  • island
  • ocean
  • plain
  • province
  • region
  • reservoir
  • salt-pan
  • swamp

Geometric Components

orientation (optional)
e.g., for primary axis of centuriation. ?????.
extent (required)
POLYGON