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. 2021;20(6):2003-2022.
doi: 10.1007/s10270-020-00851-0. Epub 2021 Feb 16.

Model-driven engineering city spaces via bidirectional model transformations

Ennio Visconti  1 , Christos Tsigkanos  1 , Zhenjiang Hu  2 , Carlo Ghezzi  3
Affiliations

Model-driven engineering city spaces via bidirectional model transformations

Ennio Visconti et al. Softw Syst Model. 2021.

Abstract

Engineering cyber-physical systems inhabiting contemporary urban spatial environments demands software engineering facilities to support design and operation. Tools and approaches in civil engineering and architectural informatics produce artifacts that are geometrical or geographical representations describing physical spaces. The models we consider conform to the CityGML standard; although relying on international standards and accessible in machine-readable formats, such physical space descriptions often lack semantic information that can be used to support analyses. In our context, analysis as commonly understood in software engineering refers to reasoning on properties of an abstracted model-in this case a city design. We support model-based development, firstly by providing a way to derive analyzable models from CityGML descriptions, and secondly, we ensure that changes performed are propagated correctly. Essentially, a digital twin of a city is kept synchronized, in both directions, with the information from the actual city. Specifically, our formal programming technique and accompanying technical framework assure that relevant information added, or changes applied to the domain (resp. analyzable) model are reflected back in the analyzable (resp. domain) model automatically and coherently. The technique developed is rooted in the theory of bidirectional transformations, which guarantees that synchronization between models is consistent and well behaved. Produced models can bootstrap graph-theoretic, spatial or dynamic analyses. We demonstrate that bidirectional transformations can be achieved in practice on real city models.

Keywords: Bidirectional model transformations; CityGML; Digital twins; Model-driven engineering.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Partial view of CityGML 2.0 top level class hierarchy, adapted from [18]. Elements in italic and with a leading “_” represent abstract classes—without an explicit XML representation. Prefixes delimited by “::” when present, mark elements that belong to specific packages. Packages names comply to the CityGML naming convention recommended by the specification. Figure elements comply with the definition of thematic features as per ISO 19109
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Architectural components and dataflow of Topocity. Dotted boxes represent external components
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Fragment of the view model derived from the CityGML description of a district in Remscheid. Nodes are (ID,Type) pairs as they appear in the real CityGML model. Presence of other—not shown—elements of the model is indicated by *
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Placement of a crane entity on the derived, analyzable model (Fig. 3) entails its automatic reflection on the source city model (Fig. 4a), resulting in Fig. 4b
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Runtime safe path analysis models. The source (a) is transformed into the analyzable model (b). The highlighted area in (a) represents the safe path illustrated in (b). Nodes are ID-Type pairs as they appear in the available CityGML model of New York; the presence of other elements in parts of the model (not shown) is indicated by *
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
An hypothetical reachability relation between Rathaus and Burgtheater in Vienna (Austria)
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
A typical problematic case. There are three buildings in our city (a), and we start to analyze them without any extra relationships - no links in view (b). Then, we decide we want to connect A and B with a tunnel T (c)
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Despite all these solutions being formally correct, only solution (a) is reasonable, since it does not require to move other buildings or to change their shapes
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