View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Apollo University of Cambridge Imperial College London The National Transport Data Framework Final Report Professor Peter Landshoff Professor John Polak March 2008 The National Transport Data Framework Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 4 BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................................... 4 AIM ............................................................................................................................................................ 5 OBJECTIVES............................................................................................................................................... 5 FUNDING................................................................................................................................................... 6 PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF NTDF APPLICATIONS........................................................................ 6 PROJECT TEAM ........................................................................................................................................ 6 THE NTDF APPROACH .............................................................................................................................. 7 PROGRAMME OF WORK .......................................................................................................................... 7 WORK PACKAGES ............................................................................................................................. 7 DELIVERABLES................................................................................................................................... 7 COMMUNICATIONS, REPORTING AND WIKI (ON CD-ROM)..................................................... 8 DESCRIPTION OF DEVELOPMENTS ................................................................................................... 9 ADOPTION OF SEMANTIC WEB TECHNOLOGIES .................................................................................11 ONTOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................11 ONTOLOGIES: ORDNANCE SURVEY EXAMPLES ........................................................................11 ONTOLOGIES: NTDF EXAMPLES FOR WEATHER AND SCO OT...............................................12 RDF, OWL AND SPARQL............................................................................................................13 XML AND UML ................................................................................................................................13 FINDINGS AND DELIVERABLES ................................................................................................................14 NTDF PROTOTYPE ...............................................................................................................................14 NTDF ARCHITECTURE....................................................................................................................14 DATA SOURCE / STORAGE LAYER ...............................................................................................15 NTDF MIDDLEWARE .......................................................................................................................15 NTDF APPLICATIONS ......................................................................................................................16 NTDF USER INTERFACE..................................................................................................................16 NTDF PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION ..........................................................................................17 NTDF ACCESS CONTROL (SEE ALSO APPENDIX III)...................................................................17 USE CASES ..............................................................................................................................................18 ROAD NETWORK PERFORMANCE USE CASE ..............................................................................18 RAIL USE CASE ................................................................................................................................18 CAR PARK ASSETS USE CASE........................................................................................................19 DATA QUALITY (SEE ALSO APPENDIX IV) .........................................................................................19 ACCESS TO AND PROTECTION OF DATA SOURCES ....................................................................22 SPOKES FROM THE NTDF HUB ............................................................................................................22 NATII..................................................................................................................................................22 MESSAGE.........................................................................................................................................23 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................................23 NTDF POTENTIAL.................................................................................................................................24 NTDF PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT....................................................................................................24 NTDF PROTOTYPE APPLICATIONS.....................................................................................................25 NTDF PROTOTYPE EVALUATION .......................................................................................................25 RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................................................27 RESOURCING ..........................................................................................................................................27 March 2008 Page i The National Transport Data Framework SUSTAINABILITY ....................................................................................................................................27 DISSEMINATION .....................................................................................................................................27 LESSONS LEARNT ..................................................................................................................................28 APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................................28 APPENDIX I: USE CASES..................................................................................................................28 NTDF URBAN ROAD NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITORING .............................................28 NATIONAL RAIL TRAVEL SURVEY (RAIL USE CASE) ................................................................30 NTDF CAR PARK ASSET INVENTORY...........................................................................................31 APPENDIX II: UPDATE ON USE CASES, MAY 2007 ................................................................33 APPENDIX III: ACCESS CONTROL................................................................................................38 APPENDIX IV: DATA QUALITY ...................................................................................................41 APPENDIX V: BUILDING A COMMUNITY, DELEGATES AT MEETINGS IN AUTUMN 2006 ........................................................................................................................................................72 Although this report was commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT), the findings and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the DfT. While the DfT has made every effort to ensure the information in this document is accurate, DfT does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of that information; and it cannot accept liability for any loss or damages of any kind resulting from reliance on the information or guidance this document contains. March 2008 Page 2 The National Transport Data Framework The National Transport Data Framework Final Report Executive Summary The NTDF is designed to be a resource for data owners to deposit descriptions into a central catalogue, so that people can search for data and find data and understand their characteristics. The need for such a facility was identified in early 2005 following discussions with the DfT, the Treasury, rail operators and experts on road transport. The value of this is to individuals, to commercial organizations, and to public bodies. For example, services that provide better information to travellers will help to make their journey less stressful and persuade them to make more use of public transport. Transport operators need very diverse information to help them plan developments to their services: demographic, geographical, economic etc. And policy makers