2,003 research outputs found
A Survey of Volunteered Open Geo-Knowledge Bases in the Semantic Web
Over the past decade, rapid advances in web technologies, coupled with
innovative models of spatial data collection and consumption, have generated a
robust growth in geo-referenced information, resulting in spatial information
overload. Increasing 'geographic intelligence' in traditional text-based
information retrieval has become a prominent approach to respond to this issue
and to fulfill users' spatial information needs. Numerous efforts in the
Semantic Geospatial Web, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), and the
Linking Open Data initiative have converged in a constellation of open
knowledge bases, freely available online. In this article, we survey these open
knowledge bases, focusing on their geospatial dimension. Particular attention
is devoted to the crucial issue of the quality of geo-knowledge bases, as well
as of crowdsourced data. A new knowledge base, the OpenStreetMap Semantic
Network, is outlined as our contribution to this area. Research directions in
information integration and Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR) are then
reviewed, with a critical discussion of their current limitations and future
prospects
Towards automated knowledge-based mapping between individual conceptualisations to empower personalisation of Geospatial Semantic Web
Geospatial domain is characterised by vagueness, especially in the semantic disambiguation of the concepts in the domain, which makes defining universally accepted geo- ontology an onerous task. This is compounded by the lack of appropriate methods and techniques where the individual semantic conceptualisations can be captured and compared to each other. With multiple user conceptualisations, efforts towards a reliable Geospatial Semantic Web, therefore, require personalisation where user diversity can be incorporated. The work presented in this paper is part of our ongoing research on applying commonsense reasoning to elicit and maintain models that represent users' conceptualisations. Such user models will enable taking into account the users' perspective of the real world and will empower personalisation algorithms for the Semantic Web. Intelligent information processing over the Semantic Web can be achieved if different conceptualisations can be integrated in a semantic environment and mismatches between different conceptualisations can be outlined. In this paper, a formal approach for detecting mismatches between a user's and an expert's conceptual model is outlined. The formalisation is used as the basis to develop algorithms to compare models defined in OWL. The algorithms are illustrated in a geographical domain using concepts from the SPACE ontology developed as part of the SWEET suite of ontologies for the Semantic Web by NASA, and are evaluated by comparing test cases of possible user misconceptions
Neogeography: The Challenge of Channelling Large and Ill-Behaved Data Streams
Neogeography is the combination of user generated data and experiences with mapping technologies. In this article we present a research project to extract valuable structured information with a geographic component from unstructured user generated text in wikis, forums, or SMSes. The extracted information should be integrated together to form a collective knowledge about certain domain. This structured information can be used further to help users from the same domain who want to get information using simple question answering system. The project intends to help workers communities in developing countries to share their knowledge, providing a simple and cheap way to contribute and get benefit using the available communication technology
Estimating Fire Weather Indices via Semantic Reasoning over Wireless Sensor Network Data Streams
Wildfires are frequent, devastating events in Australia that regularly cause
significant loss of life and widespread property damage. Fire weather indices
are a widely-adopted method for measuring fire danger and they play a
significant role in issuing bushfire warnings and in anticipating demand for
bushfire management resources. Existing systems that calculate fire weather
indices are limited due to low spatial and temporal resolution. Localized
wireless sensor networks, on the other hand, gather continuous sensor data
measuring variables such as air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall and
wind speed at high resolutions. However, using wireless sensor networks to
estimate fire weather indices is a challenge due to data quality issues, lack
of standard data formats and lack of agreement on thresholds and methods for
calculating fire weather indices. Within the scope of this paper, we propose a
standardized approach to calculating Fire Weather Indices (a.k.a. fire danger
ratings) and overcome a number of the challenges by applying Semantic Web
Technologies to the processing of data streams from a wireless sensor network
deployed in the Springbrook region of South East Queensland. This paper
describes the underlying ontologies, the semantic reasoning and the Semantic
Fire Weather Index (SFWI) system that we have developed to enable domain
experts to specify and adapt rules for calculating Fire Weather Indices. We
also describe the Web-based mapping interface that we have developed, that
enables users to improve their understanding of how fire weather indices vary
over time within a particular region.Finally, we discuss our evaluation results
that indicate that the proposed system outperforms state-of-the-art techniques
in terms of accuracy, precision and query performance.Comment: 20pages, 12 figure
Geospatial Semantics
Geospatial semantics is a broad field that involves a variety of research
areas. The term semantics refers to the meaning of things, and is in contrast
with the term syntactics. Accordingly, studies on geospatial semantics usually
focus on understanding the meaning of geographic entities as well as their
counterparts in the cognitive and digital world, such as cognitive geographic
concepts and digital gazetteers. Geospatial semantics can also facilitate the
design of geographic information systems (GIS) by enhancing the
interoperability of distributed systems and developing more intelligent
interfaces for user interactions. During the past years, a lot of research has
been conducted, approaching geospatial semantics from different perspectives,
using a variety of methods, and targeting different problems. Meanwhile, the
arrival of big geo data, especially the large amount of unstructured text data
on the Web, and the fast development of natural language processing methods
enable new research directions in geospatial semantics. This chapter,
therefore, provides a systematic review on the existing geospatial semantic
research. Six major research areas are identified and discussed, including
semantic interoperability, digital gazetteers, geographic information
retrieval, geospatial Semantic Web, place semantics, and cognitive geographic
concepts.Comment: Yingjie Hu (2017). Geospatial Semantics. In Bo Huang, Thomas J. Cova,
and Ming-Hsiang Tsou et al. (Eds): Comprehensive Geographic Information
Systems, Elsevier. Oxford, U
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Geospatial data integration with Semantic Web services: the eMerges approach
Geographic space still lacks the semantics allowing a unified view of spatial data. Indeed, as a unique but all encompassing domain, it presents specificities that geospatial applications are still unable to handle. Moreover, to be useful, new spatial applications need to match human cognitive abilities of spatial representation and reasoning. In this context, eMerges, an approach to geospatial data integration based on Semantic Web Services (SWS), allows the unified representation and manipulation of heterogeneous spatial data sources. eMerges provides this integration by mediating legacy spatial data sources to high-level spatial ontologies through SWS and by presenting for each object context dependent affordances. This generic approach is applied here in the context of an emergency management use case developed in collaboration with emergency planners of public agencies
Service-oriented design of environmental information systems
Service-orientation has an increasing impact upon the design process and the architecture of environmental information systems. This thesis specifies the SERVUS design methodology for geospatial applications based upon standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium. SERVUS guides the system architect to rephrase use case requirements as a network of semantically-annotated requested resources and to iteratively match them with offered resources that mirror the capabilities of existing services
A conceptual framework and a risk management approach for interoperability between geospatial datacubes
De nos jours, nous observons un intĂ©rĂȘt grandissant pour les bases de donnĂ©es gĂ©ospatiales multidimensionnelles. Ces bases de donnĂ©es sont dĂ©veloppĂ©es pour faciliter la prise de dĂ©cisions stratĂ©giques des organisations, et plus spĂ©cifiquement lorsquâil sâagit de donnĂ©es de diffĂ©rentes Ă©poques et de diffĂ©rents niveaux de granularitĂ©. Cependant, les utilisateurs peuvent avoir besoin dâutiliser plusieurs bases de donnĂ©es gĂ©ospatiales multidimensionnelles. Ces bases de donnĂ©es peuvent ĂȘtre sĂ©mantiquement hĂ©tĂ©rogĂšnes et caractĂ©risĂ©es par diffĂ©rent degrĂ©s de pertinence par rapport au contexte dâutilisation. RĂ©soudre les problĂšmes sĂ©mantiques liĂ©s Ă lâhĂ©tĂ©rogĂ©nĂ©itĂ© et Ă la diffĂ©rence de pertinence dâune maniĂšre transparente aux utilisateurs a Ă©tĂ© lâobjectif principal de lâinteropĂ©rabilitĂ© au cours des quinze derniĂšres annĂ©es. Dans ce contexte, diffĂ©rentes solutions ont Ă©tĂ© proposĂ©es pour traiter lâinteropĂ©rabilitĂ©. Cependant, ces solutions ont adoptĂ© une approche non systĂ©matique. De plus, aucune solution pour rĂ©soudre des problĂšmes sĂ©mantiques spĂ©cifiques liĂ©s Ă lâinteropĂ©rabilitĂ© entre les bases de donnĂ©es gĂ©ospatiales multidimensionnelles nâa Ă©tĂ© trouvĂ©e. Dans cette thĂšse, nous supposons quâil est possible de dĂ©finir une approche qui traite ces problĂšmes sĂ©mantiques pour assurer lâinteropĂ©rabilitĂ© entre les bases de donnĂ©es gĂ©ospatiales multidimensionnelles. Ainsi, nous dĂ©finissons tout dâabord lâinteropĂ©rabilitĂ© entre ces bases de donnĂ©es. Ensuite, nous dĂ©finissons et classifions les problĂšmes dâhĂ©tĂ©rogĂ©nĂ©itĂ© sĂ©mantique qui peuvent se produire au cours dâune telle interopĂ©rabilitĂ© de diffĂ©rentes bases de donnĂ©es gĂ©ospatiales multidimensionnelles. Afin de rĂ©soudre ces problĂšmes dâhĂ©tĂ©rogĂ©nĂ©itĂ© sĂ©mantique, nous proposons un cadre conceptuel qui se base sur la communication humaine. Dans ce cadre, une communication sâĂ©tablit entre deux agents systĂšme reprĂ©sentant les bases de donnĂ©es gĂ©ospatiales multidimensionnelles impliquĂ©es dans un processus dâinteropĂ©rabilitĂ©. Cette communication vise Ă Ă©changer de lâinformation sur le contenu de ces bases. Ensuite, dans lâintention dâaider les agents Ă prendre des dĂ©cisions appropriĂ©es au cours du processus dâinteropĂ©rabilitĂ©, nous Ă©valuons un ensemble dâindicateurs de la qualitĂ© externe (fitness-for-use) des schĂ©mas et du contexte de production (ex., les mĂ©tadonnĂ©es). Finalement, nous mettons en Ćuvre lâapproche afin de montrer sa faisabilitĂ©.Today, we observe wide use of geospatial databases that are implemented in many forms (e.g., transactional centralized systems, distributed databases, multidimensional datacubes). Among those possibilities, the multidimensional datacube is more appropriate to support interactive analysis and to guide the organizationâs strategic decisions, especially when different epochs and levels of information granularity are involved. However, one may need to use several geospatial multidimensional datacubes which may be semantically heterogeneous and having different degrees of appropriateness to the context of use. Overcoming the semantic problems related to the semantic heterogeneity and to the difference in the appropriateness to the context of use in a manner that is transparent to users has been the principal aim of interoperability for the last fifteen years. However, in spite of successful initiatives, today's solutions have evolved in a non systematic way. Moreover, no solution has been found to address specific semantic problems related to interoperability between geospatial datacubes. In this thesis, we suppose that it is possible to define an approach that addresses these semantic problems to support interoperability between geospatial datacubes. For that, we first describe interoperability between geospatial datacubes. Then, we define and categorize the semantic heterogeneity problems that may occur during the interoperability process of different geospatial datacubes. In order to resolve semantic heterogeneity between geospatial datacubes, we propose a conceptual framework that is essentially based on human communication. In this framework, software agents representing geospatial datacubes involved in the interoperability process communicate together. Such communication aims at exchanging information about the content of geospatial datacubes. Then, in order to help agents to make appropriate decisions during the interoperability process, we evaluate a set of indicators of the external quality (fitness-for-use) of geospatial datacube schemas and of production context (e.g., metadata). Finally, we implement the proposed approach to show its feasibility
Linking Moving Object Databases with Ontologies
This work investigates the supporting role of ontologies for supplementing the information contained in moving object databases. Details of the spatial representation as well as the sensed location of moving objects are frequently stored within a database schema. However, this knowledge lacks the semantic detail necessary for reasoning about characteristics that are specific to each object. Ontologies contribute semantic descriptions for moving objects and provide the foundation for discovering similarities between object types. These similarities can be drawn upon to extract additional details about the objects around us. The primary focus of the research is a framework for linking ontologies with databases. A major benefit gained from this kind of linking is the augmentation of database knowledge and multi-granular perspectives that are provided by ontologies through the process of generalization. Methods are presented for linking based on a military transportation scenario where data on vehicle position is collected from a sensor network and stored in a geosensor database. An ontology linking tool, implemented as a stand alone application, is introduced. This application associates individual values from the geosensor database with classes from a military transportation device ontology and returns linked value-class pairs to the user as a set of equivalence relations (i.e., matches). This research also formalizes a set of motion relations between two moving objects on a road network. It is demonstrated that the positional data collected from a geosensor network and stored in a spatio-temporal database, can provide a foundation for computing relations between moving objects. Configurations of moving objects, based on their spatial position, are described by motion relations that include isBehind and inFrontOf. These relations supply a user context about binary vehicle positions relative to a reference object. For example, the driver of a military supply truck may be interested in knowing what types of vehicles are in front of the truck. The types of objects that participate in these motion relations correspond to particular classes within the military transportation device ontology. This research reveals that linking a geosensor database to the military transportation device ontology will facilitate more abstract or higher-level perspectives of these moving objects, supporting inferences about moving objects over multiple levels of granularity. The details supplied by the generalization of geosensor data via linking, helps to interpret semantics and respond to user questions by extending the preliminary knowledge about the moving objects within these relations
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