UPDATE OF THE CANADIAN ROAD NETWORK IN A DISTRIBUTED GEOSPATIAL DATA FRAMEWORK

For some time now, the Centre for Topographic Information (CTI), part of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), has wanted to implement a network of partners for capturing and managing geospatial data. These partner organizations, selected for their specific interests (for example, the road network) or for their ease in offering adequate, up-to-date representations of particular phenomena, would make it possible to better serve Canadian community with respect to geospatial data. This new vision has met with the approval of provincial partners and represents a growing trend in the geospatial data infrastructure in most industrialized countries. These data must be the product of a homogenous, standardized view of the entire Canadian landmass. The approach sought must, to the greatest degree possible, allow each organization to pursue its activities and develop according to its respective needs. Many problems stand in the way of bringing about this theoretical vision of managing spatial data. In recent years, a number of projects have attempted to resolve similar problems, most of which have only been partially successful. One of the main success indicators of cooperative initiatives relates directly to the level of involvement of the participating organizations and individuals. The levels of participation and interest across the board have never been higher. Managing and updating the Canadian Road Network is the first topographic information theme targeted by this new environment for distributed geospatial data. Sharing geospatial data has been and remains a topic of research and of many large-scale projects. The issue of data heterogeneity in a distributed environment has two distinct but complementary aspects: system architecture and data modeling. (Bishr,1997). Many private- and public-sector organizations have attempted, through the Open GIS Consortium (OGC), to resolve the issues related to system interoperability in particular. This article deals with the issue of data modeling.