Linking Host and SpatialSample types of ""Station""

[sgrellet]

How to link

• Water Quality stations for fixed sensor network not taking sample (ex : temperature, pH etc... see notes from April 11th 2023): typed Host in our Object Diagrams
• And WaterQualityStation where we do take MaterialSamples for further obs : typed SpatialSample

Use Case : Linking both ""stations"" to help domain colleagues acquire and process Water Quality Observations regardless of whether that ""station"" is a Host/SpatialSample from an OMS point of view

Figure6 from OMS is not helping here (see below).

• In Observations & Measurements (OM) : we only had ""station"" related artefacts under the Sample package. We usually picked subtypes of SF_SpatialSamplingFeature which could be associated through "+relatedSamplingFeature"
• Now in Observations, Measurements & Samples (OMS) we have ""station"" related artefacts both under
  • Observation:Host/Deployment/Observer -> good candidate for fixed in-situ sensors
  • AND Sample:SpatialSample -> good candidate for identifying/describing Features where Samples are taken
  • but those cannot be related

In ontologies we could try polymorphism but in pure UML seems we are stuck.
Did we miss something ?

[KathiSchleidt]

First off, polymorphism is possible in GML UML, just a bit tricky when it comes to serialization (it's XML that doesn't support polymorphism).

I see 2 different approaches here, first the polymorphic interface approach. Create a new WQ_SampleHost that realizes both Sample and Host interfaces.

[KathiSchleidt]

Second approach would be creating a specific WQ_Host (derived from Host), with an association to ObservingCapabilities. Then you can link the SpatialSample via the ObservingCapabilities.

This is a bit difficult to visualize due to the nature of the OMS model. Thus, first a simple view on this approach:

Here the more complex view, showing all the intermediate classes and interfaces.

[sgrellet]

Thanks @KathiSchleidt : I like the second one, let's discuss this in the next WQ IE Webconf

[sgrellet]

extension is mandatory because the ObservingCapability --> Host association is not bidirectionnal .
Specialization to happen under OMS SWG -> @KathiSchleidt

Then @sgrellet to update the object Diagrams for WQ IE