Applied subject / Physical environment
Source records are not the physical world.
Physical-world data describes places, assets and environments through identifiers, geometries and records created by different systems. Those representations need a durable relationship to the objects they describe.
Begin with identity01 / Category definition
Representations around reality
Physical-world data is information associated with persistent physical objects and environments.
The same road, building, utility or other physical object may be described by many systems. Each may use its own identifier, geometry, classification or record structure.
Those differences are meaningful source representations. They are not, by themselves, proof of separate physical objects—and they should not be flattened into one unexplained version of truth.
02 / Record ≠ object
Count what exists, not only what is recorded
Multiple representations do not necessarily mean multiple objects.
A source record tells you that a system holds a representation. Establishing the relationship between representations and the physical environment requires an identity layer that remains distinct from provider or customer identifiers.
03 / Information dimensions
More than coordinates
A physical object gathers several kinds of context.
- Identity
- The durable physical anchor around which representations can be related.
- Geometry
- The spatial representations supplied by sources, retained with their attribution.
- Relationships
- How physical objects are associated with other objects or surrounding systems.
- Context
- The conditions needed to interpret information about the object.
- Provenance
- What a source says and where that position came from.
- Uncertainty
- The distinction between established, provisional, conflicted and unknown knowledge.
04 / Provenance
Preserve disagreement
Attribution is part of physical-world meaning.
Two providers may describe the same environment differently. One geometry may cover a different area. One position may be provisional while another is established or conflicted.
Useful infrastructure preserves those source positions and their condition. It does not silently convert provider evidence into established physical truth.
05 / A DDI product
From category to implementation
V0 is DDI’s physical-world data infrastructure product.
V0 resolves different source representations around the V0 Physical Object (V0PO), the persistent physical identity used by V0, while preserving what each source says and where it came from.
Provider and customer identifiers remain distinct from the V0PO. The public V0 read boundary is source-neutral and returns physical objects rather than connector-specific source tables.
Explore V0