  The real world and its geographic objects are modeled and represented in
different spatial databases. Each of these databases provides only a partial
description (in space and time) of the geographic objects represented.
Sometimes, producers and users of databases need to connect several of them for
updates or comparisons. Much of the work in spatial database management focuses
on matching these spatial databases and more particularly network databases,
such as road networks. With regard to network data, one situation remains
neglected, that of matching a linear database (with polylines objects) with a
surface database (with polygons objects). In any case, users also need to
connect these two types of spatial database. In this paper, a case study is
made using French examples (Cachan, near Paris), as well as international case
studies (Bordeaux in France, Victoria in Canada, and Copenhagen in Denmark), to
propose an approach intended to make coherent network geographical objects in
two different reference frames (linear and surface). This issue is addressed
here through the example of road data. The surface data are then formalized in
order to adapt them to linear data describing the same geographical objects. In
the end, a polygon in the surface data corresponds to a single polyline in the
linear data. This consistency should simplify the transfer of information from
one reference frame (linear or surface) to the other. In other words, the
methodology developed aims to make linear and surfacegeographic data
interoperable.
