Modeling geological objects with the XML Schema

Interchange, storage, and management of geological data require the development of knowledge-based, standardized vocabularies and data structures. Concepts modeled and designed with the Unified Markup Language (UML), can be mapped into XML Schema Definition Language (XSDL) to compose modular markup languages for each discipline. Developing such efficient, intra-disciplinary, modular and reusable components, based on the XSDL namespace facility and the principles of object-oriented design, reduces redundancy, increases efficiency, scalability, and extensibility, and simplifies the maintenance and future extension of the code. This paper discusses the best practices of composition and reuse of modular intra-disciplinary components by applying XML Schema namespace syntax. In addition to several small examples given for a variety of geological cases, the paper constructs a UML conceptual model and markup language, applying an XML-type library, for a component of the plate tectonics knowledge base (TectonicsML) that deals with the divergent plate boundary. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.