Database Application for Changing Data Models in Environmental Engineering

Abstract

Whenever a technical task is to be solved with the help of a database application and uncertainties regarding the structure, scope or level of detail of the data model exist (either currently or in the future) the use of a generic database application can reduce considerably the cost of implementation and maintenance. Simultaneously the approach described in this contribution permits the operation with different views on the data and even finding and defining new views which had not been considered before. The prerequisite for this is that the preliminary information (structure as well as data) stored into the generic application matches the intended use. In this case, parts of the generic model developed with the generic approach can be reused and according efforts for a major rebuild can be saved. This significantly reduces the development time. At the same time flexibility is achieved concerning the environmental data model, which is not given in the context of conventional developments.