Introducing the Repository Catalog

The citySchema Repository Catalog is a means of publishing a city model as a single package that includes all of the model components along with the catalog information, feature level metadata and finding aids in a single data-set that may be accessed with a variety of tools.

A Self-Contained Web Publishing Scheme

An Open Archival Information System

The design of the Repository Catalog is guided by the International Standards Organization Reference Model for Open Archival Information Systems (OAIS). OAIS is provides patterns for designing information systems that collect and share Information Packages among collaborators who may use a variety of tools.

An OAIS Information Package combines digital assets with sufficient descriptive information to make the asset useful for applications. At a minimum, an AIP includes an asset or a collection of assets along with some human or machine-readable metadata which may include: a Data Dictionary; Coordinate System Information; and Finding Aids, such as tabular indexes or finder maps that assist in identifying individual assets in the collection.

Once information packages have been defined for the inputs: Submission Information Packages (SIP) and for Archival Information Packages (AIP), you may develop a sustainable culture of inter-disciplinary data sharing that does not grow more complicated as it expands in terms of numbers of assets or numbers of contributors or in temporal or spatial extent.

The citySchema Repository Catalog and its associated tools and workflows produce an archive which is a completely self-contained, user friendly html "web" site that links data assets and catalog information to user-friendly metadata and necessary documentation and clickable map finding aids. These html pages and PDF files are related through relative path names so that there are no dependencies on external web services. Therefore, the Repository Catalog operates on a local file-system or through the web, providing web endpoints for each asset. It will continue to work as long as there are browsers that interpret HTML and Javascript.

Built to Leverage City Model Assets in Diverse Applications

The Repository / Catalog is designed make it easy for users to access city model assets. The catalog repository can be easily be modified as a repository for city models covering other areas.

Tour the Repository / Catalog as a Web Site

In keeping with the OAIS Reference model, the Repository Catalog is a self-contained package of data and documentation designed to provide systematic access to all of the information necessary for using and preserving a collection of diverse city model assets.

Most of the features of the repo/catalog can be discovered through the Data Download Page

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Access Individual Building Models

Web-End-points for Individual Building And Bridge Models

Collaborators will find it easy to start their own models using the fully integrated tiled SketchUp format models. However, we have learned that for on-going work, it is desirable to be able to discover and download individual building models that have been changed. Have a look at the tile-based individual building model Access.

User Documentation

Power users and collaborators wil need to understand fundamental concepts of the model collection and its coordinate system. All of this information is built into the repository / catalog. Check out the index to all of the built-in documenation .

Turn-Key Web Publishing or An Off-Line Data Store

The Repository / Catalog provides a simple means of publishing the entire city model with its terrain and building model components on the web. Because of its resilient, self-contained structure, it is also useful as an off-line data store that provides the same systematic fine-grained model access in an local file-system.

Explore and Clone your Own from GitHub!

The Archive Repository is based on a simple arrangement of folders, simple html files, data files and a couple of javascript modules. It is easy to understand and to modify to host your own city model collections.

Visit the citySchema Repository Catalog on GitHub to Explore our Boston demonstration as a simple file-system, which may be cloned from GitHub. Text at the bottom of the git-hub page provides tips for understanding how the repository catalog can be customized for your city.

Thanks to the Boston Planning and Development Agency for sponsoring this project and for the use of their template for this demonstration!