The MONDIAL Database

The MONDIAL database has been compiled from geographical Web data sources listed below:

• CIA World Factbook,
• a predecessor of Global Statistics which has been collected by Johan van der Heijden.
• additional textual sources for coordinates,
• the International Atlas by Kümmerly & Frey, Rand McNally, and Westermann,
• and some geographical data of the Karlsruhe TERRA database.

The generation of the MONDIAL database is a case study for information extraction and integration:

• The data extraction and integration process using the F-Logic system FLORID is described here.
• The integration in XML using the LoPiX system is described here.

Mondial has been revised in summer 2009. The data and main schema (XML and SQL) have been incrementally changed:

• added the political changes since 1998: Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Timor-Leste,
• added several small island countries; some independent, some dependent. Added an attribute "dependent" to countries.
• refined the modeling of geographical things (rivers, lakes, seas, islands, mountains, deserts), and extended the data:
  • sources and estuaries of rivers are now modeled,
  • added data on rivers flowing out of lakes,
  • cities located on islands, made cities located at waters more complete,
  • mountains located on islands,
  • islands located in (or on the border between) seas,
• names of religions and languages are aligned (data still highly incomplete),
• we did not update population numbers, neither add many more cities.

The Mondial database is available in several formats:

Relational MONDIAL

The Database training "Praktikum: Datenbankprogrammierung in SQL/Oracle" at the IFI uses the relational version of the MONDIAL database:

• Generating the Database under Oracle
  • Database schema "mondial-schema.sql"
    
  • Input statements "mondial-inputs.sql"

• Generating the Database under MySQL
  (by Carsten Gottschlich)
  Note that MySQL supports only a basic subset (creating tables, queries, updates) of the whole SQL functionality.
  • Database schema for mysql "mondial-schema-mysql.sql"
    
  • Input statements for mysql "mondial-inputs-mysql.sql"
  • short description what has been changed for MySQL.

• Documentation
  • the ER diagram,
  • the relational schema,
  • the referential dependency diagram,

• The Oracle instance of Mondial can be queried by that form.

MONDIAL in XML

The Mondial database provides a comprehensive example for XML, e.g., for use in teaching.

• DTD "mondial.dtd"
• XML file "mondial.xml"
• excerpt: europe "mondial-europe.xml"

(note that some browsers to not *show* XML and DTD files correctly. Download the file(s) and load them into an editor)

MONDIAL in RDF

Files are available in N3 format and in RDF/XML format. For human readers, the N3 is better readable, but as different tools have different expectations what "valid" N3 syntax is, there is also the RDF/XML variant [in the browser, use "show source"].
(subject to change - minor change in namespace 5.6.2008)

• The complete Mondial database: mondial.n3 (N3/Turtle), mondial.rdf (RDF/XML)
• The N3 data for Europe only: mondial-europe.n3 (N3/Turtle), mondial-europe.rdf (RDF/XML)
• Mondial RDFS/OWL metadata mondial-meta.n3 (N3/Turtle), mondial-meta.rdf (RDF/XML)
• an example query in SPARQL: mondial-query.sparql

MONDIAL in F-Logic

• The extraction and integration process and the extracted source facts in F-Logic representation can be found at the FLORID-MONDIAL Case Study.
• The following files provide Mondial in its original version from 1998:
  • Cleaned data in an OO schema "mondial-oo-facts.flp"
  • Cleaned data in Florid Frame Format "mondial-frames.flp"

The MONDIAL database has been stimulated by the TERRA database and the SQL training of the Institut für Programmstrukturen und Datenorganisation der Universität Karlsruhe. Using Florid, a new database has been generated in 1998 from the above data sources.
MONDIAL and the DBIS Oracle training is freely available for research and educational purposes under the condition that the origin of MONDIAL is mentioned in all publications and documentation.
Recommended citation is the technical report with a reference to the Web page:

@TechReport{may-MONDIAL-report-99,
  author =	 {Wolfgang May},
  title =	 {Information Extraction and Integration with \textsc{Florid}:
        The \textsc{Mondial} Case Study},
  institution =  {Universit\"at Freiburg, Institut f\"ur Informatik},
  year = 	 1999,
  number =	 131,
  note    =     "Available from
    \url{http://dbis.informatik.uni-goettingen.de/Mondial}"
}

Mondial is used as an example in several books, lectures, courses etc. Search e.g. google for

• Mondial+XML
• Mondial+SQL
• Mondial+RDF
• Mondial+Database