Extending ERD modeling notation to fuzzy management of GIS data files
Geographic information systems manage a wide variety of data. Some of these data are stored in traditional databases, but much more is not. We developed a model, based on the concept of aggregating data into sets, to manage a wide variety of diverse data formats as a single logical entity. Because it manages descriptive information (metadata) about sets rather than the data files themselves, this model will be able to accommodate new data formats as they are developed in the future. The model was initially annotated as an entity relation diagram. It was then extended with concepts from fuzzy set theory in order to deal with problems that occur when selecting among similar sets with overlapping data. The new fuzzy notations developed in this research are generally applicable to all entity relation data modeling and provide the basis for a new, more robust and descriptive type of modeling methodology.
gis fuzzy set theory data model