use of GML for geographical data

[Guillaume Rousse]

I'm posting there as i haven't found any mailing-list for the geography
subgroup.

I would like to discuss the use of GML for geographical data in systematics
databases. GML is (or will become soon) a standard for geographical data
exchange/storage, so it would be really interesting to use it for our own
needs. Moreover, it's really designed to be included in other data formats.

However it is mostly coordinate-based, while most of our current data are
not. We have relationships between locations/areas, such as 'collection x is
located in city y, that is located in country z', but rarely latitude and
longitude of a them.

GML could eventually support strictly hierarchized data, such as points
located inside an area, but not overlaping areas realtionships.

Has anyone else already examined this issue ?
--
Guillaume Rousse <rousse at ccr.jussieu.fr>
GPG key http://lis.snv.jussieu.fr/~rousse/gpgkey.html