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December 11, 2025ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information3 citationsOpen Access

A Graph Data Model for CityGML Utility Network ADE: A Case Study on Water Utilities

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EPEnsiyeh Javaherian PourBABehnam AtazadehARAbbas Rajabifard

Key Points

  • The study aims to improve utility network representation using a graph model based on CityGML.
  • Developed the UNADE-LPG model for graph-based representation of utility networks.
  • Created a conversion pipeline for generating UNADE-LPG instances from CityGML datasets.
  • Demonstrated the model through two case studies, including a real-world water system in Frankston, Melbourne.
  • Validated the model's structural integrity and semantic preservation against the UNADE schema.
  • Illustrated practical applications for network analysis through analytical path-finding queries.

Abstract

Modelling connectivity in utility networks is essential for operational management, maintenance planning, and resilience analysis. The CityGML Utility Network Application Domain Extension (UNADE) provides a detailed conceptual framework for representing utility networks; however, most existing implementations rely on relational databases, where connectivity must be reconstructed through joins rather than represented as explicit relationships. This creates challenges when managing densely connected network structures. This study introduces the UNADE–Labelled Property Graph (UNADE-LPG) model, a graph-based representation that maps the classes, relationships, and constraints defined in the UNADE Unified Modelling Language (UML) schema into nodes, edges, and properties. A conversion pipeline is developed to generate UNADE-LPG instances directly from CityGML UNADE datasets encoded in GML, enabling the population of graph databases while maintaining semantic alignment with the original schema. The approach is demonstrated through two case studies: a schematic network and a real-world water system from Frankston, Melbourne. Validation procedures, covering structural checks, topological continuity, classification behaviour, and descriptive graph statistics, confirm that the resulting graph preserves the semantic structure of the UNADE schema and accurately represents the physical connectivity of the network. An analytical path-finding query is also implemented to illustrate how the UNADE-LPG structure supports practical network-analysis tasks, such as identifying connected pipeline sequences. Overall, the findings show that the UNADE-LPG model provides a clear, standards-aligned, and operationally practical foundation for representing utility networks within graph environments, supporting future integration into digital-twin and network-analytics applications.

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Cite This Study

Pour et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69401b172d562116f28f73f8https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi14120493
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