Assessing the quality of geospatial linked data – experiences from Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi)

Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) is Ireland’s national mapping agency that is responsible for the digitisation of the island’s infrastructure in terms of mapping. Generating data from various sensors (e.g. spatial sensors), OSi build its knowledge in the Prime2 framework, a subset of which is transformed into geo-Linked Data. In this paper we discuss how the quality of the generated sematic data fares against datasets in the LOD cloud. We set up Luzzu, a scalable Linked Data quality assessment framework, in the OSi pipeline to continuously assess produced data in order to tackle any quality problems prior to publishing

Identifying success factors in crowdsourced geographic information use in government

Crowdsourcing geographic information in government is focusing on projects that are engaging people who are not government officials and employees in collecting, editing and sharing information with governmental bodies. This type of projects emerged in the past decade, due to technological and societal changes - such as the increased use of smartphones, combined with growing levels of education and technical abilities to use them by citizens. They also flourished due to the need for updated data in relatively quick time when financial resources are low. They range from recording the experience of feeling an earthquake to recording the location of businesses during the summer time. 50 cases of projects in which crowdsourced geographic information was used by governmental bodies across the world are analysed. About 60% of the cases were examined in 2014 and in 2017, to allow for comparison and identification of success and failure. The analysis looked at different aspects and their relationship to success: the drivers to start a project; scope and aims; stakeholders and relationships; inputs into the project; technical and organisational aspect; and problems encountered. The main key factors of the case studies were analysed with the use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) which is an analytical method that combines quantitative and qualitative tools in sociological research. From the analysis, we can conclude that there is no “magic bullet” or a perfect methodology for a successful crowdsourcing in government project. Unless the organisation has reached maturity in the area of crowdsourcing, identifying a champion and starting a project that will not address authoritative datasets directly is a good way to ensure early success and start the process of organisational learning on how to run such projects. Governmental support and trust is undisputed. If the choice is to use new technologies, this should be accompanied by an investment of appropriate resources within the organisation to ensure that the investment bear fruits. Alternatively, using an existing technology that was successful elsewhere and investing in training and capacity building is another path for success. We also identified the importance of intermediary Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) with the experience and knowledge in working with crowdsourcing within a partnership. These organizations have the knowledge and skills to implement projects at the boundary between government and the crowd, and therefore can offer the experience to ensure better implementation. Changes and improvement of public services, or a focus on environmental monitoring can be a good basis for a project. Capturing base mapping is a good point to start, too. The recommendation of the report address organisational issues, resources, and legal aspects

Innovating the Construction Life Cycle through BIM/GIS Integration: A Review

The construction sector is in continuous evolution due to the digitalisation and integration into daily activities of the building information modelling approach and methods that impact on the overall life cycle. This study investigates the topic of BIM/GIS integration with the adoption of ontologies and metamodels, providing a critical analysis of the existing literature. Ontologies and metamodels share several similarities and could be combined for potential solutions to address BIM/GIS integration for complex tasks, such as asset management, where heterogeneous sources of data are involved. The research adopts a systematic literature review (SLR), providing a formal approach to retrieve scientific papers from dedicated online databases. The results found are then analysed, in order to describe the state of the art and suggest future research paths, which is useful for both researchers and practitioners. From the SLR, it emerged that several studies address ontologies as a promising way to overcome the semantic barriers of the BIM/GIS integration. On the other hand, metamodels (and MDE and MDA approaches, in general) are rarely found in relation to the integration topic. Moreover, the joint application of ontologies and metamodels for BIM/GIS applications is an unexplored field. The novelty of this work is the proposal of the joint application of ontologies and metamodels to perform BIM/GIS integration, for the development of software and systems for asset management

TaLAM: Mapping Land Cover in Lowlands and Uplands with Satellite Imagery

End-of-Project ReportThe Towards Land Cover Accounting and Monitoring (TaLAM) project is part of Ireland’s response to creating a national land cover mapping programme. Its aims are to demonstrate how the new digital map of Ireland, Prime2, from Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI), can be combined with satellite imagery to produce land cover maps

Next Generation of Spatial Data Infrastructure: Lessons from Linked Data implementations across Europe

The need for integration of geospatial data across national borders poses questions on how to overcome technical and organizational barriers between national mapping agencies. Existing National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDIs) inherited heterogeneous technology stacks and user cultures. Example integration solutions are based on cascading data services on the Web using open standards. However, this approach is often cumbersome since it requires substantial efforts aimed at harmonisation of data structures and semantics of the content between NSDIs. In contrast, the Linked Data technology as an innovative approach for publishing heterogeneous data sources on the Web is able to transcend the traditional confines of separate databases, as well as, the confines of separate institutions - keeping existing infrastructures intact. Moreover, exposing national data as Linked Data on the Web makes it a part of the Semantic Web. This allows shifting focus from collection and dissemination of data to meaningful data consumption. Here, we present and discuss the results of the Open European Location Services project, a collaboration between the national mapping agencies of Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain which is aimed at demonstrating the capabilities of Linked Data technology in the context of Pan-European geospatial data provision

Linked Logainm: enhancing library metadata using linked data of Irish place names

Linked Logainm is the newly created Linked Data version of Logainm.ie, an online database holding the authoritative hierarchical list of Irish and English language place names in Ireland. As a use case to demonstrate the benefit of Linked Data to the library community, the Linked Logainm dataset was used to enhance the Longfield Map collection, a set of digitised 18th–19th century maps held by the National Library of Ireland. This paper describes the process of creating Linked Logainm, including the transformation of the data from XML to RDF, the generation of links to external geographic datasets like DBpedia and the Faceted Application of Subject Terminology, and the enhancement of the Library’s metadata records

Linked data authority records for Irish place names

Linked Data technologies are increasingly being implemented to enhance cataloguing workflows in libraries, archives and museums. We review current best practice in library cataloguing, how Linked Data is used to link collections and provide consistency in indexing, and briefly describe the relationship between Linked Data, library data models and descriptive standards. As an example we look at the Logainm.ie dataset, an online database holding the authoritative hierarchical list of Irish and English language place names in Ireland. This paper describes the process of creating the new Linked Logainm dataset, including the transformation of the data from XML to RDF and the generation of links to external geographic datasets like DBpedia and the Faceted Application of Subject Terminology. This dataset was then used to enhance the National Library of Ireland's metadata MARCXML metadata records for its Longfield maps collection. We also describe the potential benefits of Linked Data for libraries, focusing on the use of the Linked Logainm dataset and its future potential for Irish heritage institutions

Quality metrics to measure the standards conformance of geospatial linked data

This paper describes three new Geospatial Linked Data (GLD) quality metrics that help evaluate conformance to standards. Standards conformance is a key quality criteria, for example for FAIR data. The metrics were implemented in the open source Luzzu quality assessment framework and used to evaluate four public geospatial datasets that showed a wide variation in standards conformance. This is the first set of Linked Data quality metrics developed specifically for GL

LinkedDataOps: linked data operations based on quality process cycle

This paper describes three new Geospatial Linked Data (GLD) quality metrics that help evaluate conformance to standards. Standards conformance is a key quality criteria, for example for FAIR data. The metrics were implemented in the open source Luzzu quality assessment framework and used to evaluate four public geospatial datasets that showed a wide variation in standards conformance. This is the first set of Linked Data quality metrics developed specifically for GLD

Achieving Sustainability Through Geodata: An Empirical Study of Challenges and Barriers

Master's thesis in Information systems (IS501)Research within data management is often based on the elements of the data lifecycle. Organizations and businesses are also becoming more interested in data lifecycle management to leverage their data streams, compounded by an interest in geographical attributes within the data –referred to as geodata. Geodata provides a richer basis for analysis and is increasingly important within urban planning. Furthermore, the pressure to achieve sustainability goals calls for improving the data lifecycle. The challenge remainsas to what can be improvedwithin the data lifecycle –with geodata as an important input –to achieve sustainability dimensions. Our main contribution through this study is shedding light on challenges withgeodata from an Information Systems (IS) and sustainability perspective. Additionally, the identified challenges are also feedback to data management research and the data lifecycle