Can OGC Simple Feature polygon's interior boundaries share an edge?

Question

Is the polygon pictured below compliant with the OGC Simple Feature standard?

There are two interior boundaries that share a segment so intuitively I would say it is not but I have not been able to find any confirmation in the documentation (in the 1.2.1 version, polygon is described on pages 26-28).

There are "rules that define a valid polygon" and I don't see there anything that would exclude polygons whose interior boundaries touch, but I also don't understand why, based on those rules, are some of the example polygons in Figure 12 invalid so I must be missing something.

Answer 1

I would say that rings which share a segment are denied by the rule 6.1.11 c)

No two Rings in the boundary cross and the Rings in the boundary of a Polygon may intersect at a Point but only as a tangent.

Inner rings which touch at one point (intersect as a tangent) is OK.

POLYGON (( 0 0, 0 5, 6 5, 6 0, 0 0 ), ( 2 2, 3 2, 3 4, 2 4, 2 2 ), ( 3 2, 3 1, 4 1, 4 2, 3 2 ))

Case when inner rings intersect along a line and thus have an infinite number of common points is not OK.

POLYGON (( 0 0, 0 5, 6 5, 6 0, 0 0 ), ( 2 2, 3 2, 3 4, 2 4, 2 2 ), ( 3 3, 3 1, 4 1, 4 3, 3 3))

The right way to express the above is to combine the inner rings

POLYGON (( 0 0, 0 5, 6 5, 6 0, 0 0 ), ( 2 2, 3 2, 3 1, 4 1, 4 3, 3 3, 3 4, 2 4, 2 2 ))

Test with PostGIS and rings touching at one point:

select ST_IsValidReason(ST_GeomFromText('POLYGON (( 0 0, 0 5, 6 5, 6 0, 0 0 ), ( 2 2, 3 2, 3 4, 2 4, 2 2 ), ( 3 2, 3 1, 4 1, 4 2, 3 2 ))'));
    Result: Valid geometry

Test with PostGIS and rings intersecting along a line:

select ST_IsValidReason(ST_GeomFromText('POLYGON (( 0 0, 0 5, 6 5, 6 0, 0 0 ), ( 2 2, 3 2, 3 4, 2 4, 2 2 ), ( 3 3, 3 1, 4 1, 4 3, 3 3))'));
Result:
"Self-intersection[3 2]"