Programming patterns and development guidelines for Semantic Sensor Grids (SemSorGrid4Env)

The web of Linked Data holds great potential for the creation of semantic applications that can combine self-describing structured data from many sources including sensor networks. Such applications build upon the success of an earlier generation of 'rapidly developed' applications that utilised RESTful APIs. This deliverable details experience, best practice, and design patterns for developing high-level web-based APIs in support of semantic web applications and mashups for sensor grids. Its main contributions are a proposal for combining Linked Data with RESTful application development summarised through a set of design principles; and the application of these design principles to Semantic Sensor Grids through the development of a High-Level API for Observations. These are supported by implementations of the High-Level API for Observations in software, and example semantic mashups that utilise the API

Multi-Paradigm Reasoning for Access to Heterogeneous GIS

Accessing and querying geographical data in a uniform way has become easier in recent years. Emerging standards like WFS turn the web into a geospatial web services enabled place. Mediation architectures like VirGIS overcome syntactical and semantical heterogeneity between several distributed sources. On mobile devices, however, this kind of solution is not suitable, due to limitations, mostly regarding bandwidth, computation power, and available storage space. The aim of this paper is to present a solution for providing powerful reasoning mechanisms accessible from mobile applications and involving data from several heterogeneous sources. By adapting contents to time and location, mobile web information systems can not only increase the value and suitability of the service itself, but can substantially reduce the amount of data delivered to users. Because many problems pertain to infrastructures and transportation in general and to way finding in particular, one cornerstone of the architecture is higher level reasoning on graph networks with the Multi-Paradigm Location Language MPLL. A mediation architecture is used as a “graph provider” in order to transfer the load of computation to the best suited component – graph construction and transformation for example being heavy on resources. Reasoning in general can be conducted either near the “source” or near the end user, depending on the specific use case. The concepts underlying the proposal described in this paper are illustrated by a typical and concrete scenario for web applications

Compact gml: merging mobile computing and mobile cartography

The use of portable devices is moving from "Wireless Applications", typically implemented as browsing-on-the-road, to "Mobile Computing", which aims to exploit increasing processing power of consumer devices. As users get connected with smartphones and PDAs, they look for geographic information and location-aware services. While browser-based approaches have been explored (using static images or graphics formats such as Mobile SVG), a data model tailored for local computation on mobile devices is still missing. This paper presents the Compact Geographic Markup Language (cGML) that enables design and development of specific purpose GIS applications for portable consumer devices where a cGML document can be used as a spatial query result as well

Implementation and Deployment of a Library of the High-level Application Programming Interfaces (SemSorGrid4Env)

The high-level API service is designed to support rapid development of thin web applications and mashups beyond the state of the art in GIS, while maintaining compatibility with existing tools and expectations. It provides a fully configurable API, while maintaining a separation of concerns between domain experts, service administrators and mashup developers. It adheres to REST and Linked Data principles, and provides a novel bridge between standards-based (OGC O&M) and Semantic Web approaches. This document discusses the background motivations for the HLAPI (including experiences gained from any previously implemented versions), before moving onto specific details of the final implementation, including configuration and deployment instructions, as well as a full tutorial to assist mashup developers with using the exposed observation data

Accessing meteorological data in INSPIRE

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.In the information age, information is of vital importance to the economic and social development of a country. Meteorological data, is multidimensional, continually evolving, highly spatial and highly temporal in nature. It is of great importance to a wide range of stakeholders including national agencies, private weather services, defense, transportation, aviation, national infrastructures, financial institutions and the general public. Members of the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) have vast amounts of data. However, this data is stored in many different formats based on various conceptual models (e.g. BUFR, GRIB, NetCDF, HDF). INSPIRE is a European Union initiative to create interoperability between spatial datasets among various communities. The main goal of this project is to suggest the most appropriate INSPIRE Download Service to access meteorological data. This project uses BUFR data and tries to access it through Climate Science Modeling Language (CSML), which is a data model and software framework for accessing meteorological data and retrieve it through standard geospatial web services. Based on the testing, suitable INSPIRE Download Service will be suggested. This helps to bridge the gaps between the geospatial, meteorological communities, and policy makers

The cgml: a xml language for mobile cartography

Increasing processing power and storage capabilities encourage systematic adoption of high-end mobile devices, such as programmable cellular phones and wireless-enabled PDA to implement new exciting applications. The performances of modern mobile devices are bringing innovative scenarios, based on position awareness and ambient intelligence paradigms. The market is moving from old 'Wireless Applications' approach to Mobile Computing, which aims to exploit mobile host capabilities. This paper presents the compact Geographic Markup Language (cGML), an XML-based language defined to enable design and development of LBS applications specific for mobile devices, and an example of client-server architecture using it

Spatial ontologies for architectural heritage

Informatics and artificial intelligence have generated new requirements for digital archiving, information, and documentation. Semantic interoperability has become fundamental for the management and sharing of information. The constraints to data interpretation enable both database interoperability, for data and schemas sharing and reuse, and information retrieval in large datasets. Another challenging issue is the exploitation of automated reasoning possibilities. The solution is the use of domain ontologies as a reference for data modelling in information systems. The architectural heritage (AH) domain is considered in this thesis. The documentation in this field, particularly complex and multifaceted, is well-known to be critical for the preservation, knowledge, and promotion of the monuments. For these reasons, digital inventories, also exploiting standards and new semantic technologies, are developed by international organisations (Getty Institute, ONU, European Union). Geometric and geographic information is essential part of a monument. It is composed by a number of aspects (spatial, topological, and mereological relations; accuracy; multi-scale representation; time; etc.). Currently, geomatics permits the obtaining of very accurate and dense 3D models (possibly enriched with textures) and derived products, in both raster and vector format. Many standards were published for the geographic field or in the cultural heritage domain. However, the first ones are limited in the foreseen representation scales (the maximum is achieved by OGC CityGML), and the semantic values do not consider the full semantic richness of AH. The second ones (especially the core ontology CIDOC – CRM, the Conceptual Reference Model of the Documentation Commettee of the International Council of Museums) were employed to document museums’ objects. Even if it was recently extended to standing buildings and a spatial extension was included, the integration of complex 3D models has not yet been achieved. In this thesis, the aspects (especially spatial issues) to consider in the documentation of monuments are analysed. In the light of them, the OGC CityGML is extended for the management of AH complexity. An approach ‘from the landscape to the detail’ is used, for considering the monument in a wider system, which is essential for analysis and reasoning about such complex objects. An implementation test is conducted on a case study, preferring open source applications

Towards Querying and Visualization of Large Spatio-Temporal Databases

In any database model, data analysis can be eased by extracting a smaller set of the data of interest, called subset, from the mammoth original dataset. Thus, a subset helps enhance the performance of a system by avoiding the iteration through the huge parental data in further analysis. A subset, its specification, or the formal process for its extraction can be complex. In the database community, subsets are extracted through SQL-like queries and through visualization in the Geographic Information System (GIS) community. Both are iterative processes. An SQL query can be a composition of subqueries. Each subquery can be seen as an iterative step toward the extraction of the desired subset. For this to work, subqueries should result into relations that have the same structure as the relations in a given data model. Although it may not be immediately obvious, the visualization can be iterative too. Each community works in its own compartment. Either one uses subprocesses that are only subqueries or only visual interactions. Mixing these two subprocesses would yield a more powerful expressibility in the hands of users. Parametric Data Model is well-known for handling multidimensional parametric data, such as spatial, temporal, or spatio-temporal. In the parametric approach, the object is modeled as a single tuple, creating one-to-one correspondence between an object in the real world and a tuple in the database. The parametric approach relies on its own SQL-like, but richer, query language called ParaSQL which mimics the classical SQL. However, it is simpler and avoids self-join operations; hence, enhances performance. In the parametric approach, the attribute values are defined as a function, allowing large values, also. The execution of a query in the existing prototype of the Parametric Data Model results in data out, as stream in a raw text format that cannot be queried further. This is unlike classical databases, where a subset provides additional strength to a system and the prototype lacks this potential functionality. The real power of ParaSQL lies in the where clause, and previous versions of the prototype had a very simple implementation. It is expanded further in this research work to harness its hidden potential. To perform the preliminary investigation, exploratory visual analysis is an important aspect in any spatio-temporal database system. Previous versions of the prototype of Parametric Data Model completely lacked the visualization functionality. This work ensures the output of a ParaSQL (possibly a subset) will be a relation having the same format as relations in the model rather than plain text. It also attempts to expand the power of the where clause, ensuring a clean logic and more generic nature. Some important basic steps are taken to bring a visual in a way that is conducive to the structures in Parametric Data Model. The richness of GIS visualization serves as the foundation for the visual functionality of the Parametric Data Model. The query is executed on the parametric side, while the results are visualized on GIS side. This integration equips the Parametric Data Model with visualization functionality. GIS visualization also offers a click-based selection of a subset and its persistence, which later can be consumed by Parametric Data Model also. This research work establishes a two-way communication between the two communities-Parametric Data Model and GIS- where the output of one can serve as the input for the other and is an attempt to bring them together

Spatial ontologies for architectural heritage

Informatics and artificial intelligence have generated new requirements for digital archiving, information, and documentation. Semantic interoperability has become fundamental for the management and sharing of information. The constraints to data interpretation enable both database interoperability, for data and schemas sharing and reuse, and information retrieval in large datasets. Another challenging issue is the exploitation of automated reasoning possibilities. The solution is the use of domain ontologies as a reference for data modelling in information systems. The architectural heritage (AH) domain is considered in this thesis. The documentation in this field, particularly complex and multifaceted, is well-known to be critical for the preservation, knowledge, and promotion of the monuments. For these reasons, digital inventories, also exploiting standards and new semantic technologies, are developed by international organisations (Getty Institute, ONU, European Union). Geometric and geographic information is essential part of a monument. It is composed by a number of aspects (spatial, topological, and mereological relations; accuracy; multi-scale representation; time; etc.). Currently, geomatics permits the obtaining of very accurate and dense 3D models (possibly enriched with textures) and derived products, in both raster and vector format. Many standards were published for the geographic field or in the cultural heritage domain. However, the first ones are limited in the foreseen representation scales (the maximum is achieved by OGC CityGML), and the semantic values do not consider the full semantic richness of AH. The second ones (especially the core ontology CIDOC – CRM, the Conceptual Reference Model of the Documentation Commettee of the International Council of Museums) were employed to document museums’ objects. Even if it was recently extended to standing buildings and a spatial extension was included, the integration of complex 3D models has not yet been achieved. In this thesis, the aspects (especially spatial issues) to consider in the documentation of monuments are analysed. In the light of them, the OGC CityGML is extended for the management of AH complexity. An approach ‘from the landscape to the detail’ is used, for considering the monument in a wider system, which is essential for analysis and reasoning about such complex objects. An implementation test is conducted on a case study, preferring open source applications