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Ontology-Driven Geographic Information Systems
, 1999
"... This paper introduces a geographic information system architecture based on ontologies. Ontology plays a central role in the definition of all aspects and components of an information system in the so-called ontology-driven information systems. The system presented here uses a container of interoper ..."
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Cited by 175 (23 self)
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This paper introduces a geographic information system architecture based on ontologies. Ontology plays a central role in the definition of all aspects and components of an information system in the so-called ontology-driven information systems. The system presented here uses a container of interoperable geographic objects. The objects are extracted from multiple independent data sources and are derived from a strongly typed mapping of classes from multiple ontologies. This approach provides a great level of interoperability and allows partial integration of information when completeness is impossible.
Semantic Granularity in Ontology-Driven Geographic Information Systems
"... The integration of information of different kinds, such as spatial and alphanumeric at different levels of detail, is a challenge. While a solution is not reached, it is widely recognized that the need to integrate information is so pressing that it does not matter if detail is lost, as long as inte ..."
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Cited by 37 (4 self)
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The integration of information of different kinds, such as spatial and alphanumeric at different levels of detail, is a challenge. While a solution is not reached, it is widely recognized that the need to integrate information is so pressing that it does not matter if detail is lost, as long as integration is achieved. This paper shows the potential for information retrieval at different levels of granularity inside the framework of information systems based on ontologies. Ontologies are theories that use a specific vocabulary to describe entities, classes, properties and functions related to a certain view of the world. The use of an ontology, translated into an active information system component, leads to Ontology-Driven Information Systems and, in the specific case of GIS, leads to what we call Ontology-Driven Geographic Information Systems.
Ontologies and Knowledge Sharing in Urban GIS
, 2000
"... Data and knowledge exchange among users of urban information systems presents many challenges. This paper discusses issues related to the use of ontologies in the development of urban geographic information systems and proposes the creation of software components from diverse ontologies as a way to ..."
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Cited by 22 (1 self)
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Data and knowledge exchange among users of urban information systems presents many challenges. This paper discusses issues related to the use of ontologies in the development of urban geographic information systems and proposes the creation of software components from diverse ontologies as a way to share knowledge and data. These software components are derived from ontologies using an object-oriented mapping. The translation of an ontology into an active information system component leads to ontology-driven information systems and, in the specific case of geographic applications, to ontologydriven geographic information systems. We analyze the urban environment from the ontologists' point of view and make some inferences about the relationship between knowledge and data sharing, and the theory of bona fide and fiat objects. We also discuss implementation issues, such as the use of Ontolingua as an ontology editor, and CORBA IDL generator, CORBA, and Java as object platforms.
Progress in computational methods for representing geographical concepts
- International Journal of Geographical Information Science
, 1999
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Identity-Based Change Operations for Composite Objects
- IN PROCEEDINGS OF 8TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SPATIAL DATA HANDLING, EDITED BY T. POIKER AND N. CHRISMAN (VANCOUVER, CANADA: INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL UNION
, 1998
"... Incorporating abstraction methods, such as aggregation and association, into information system design methodologies has improved our ability to model the real world. The semantically-higher level objects that result from these abstractions are referred to as composite objects. These objects play an ..."
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Cited by 17 (3 self)
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Incorporating abstraction methods, such as aggregation and association, into information system design methodologies has improved our ability to model the real world. The semantically-higher level objects that result from these abstractions are referred to as composite objects. These objects play an important role in spatio-temporal knowledge representation and query formulation, although little has been done so far on formalizing operations involving these types of objects. In this investigation, the semantics associated with composite objects are explored as is the role of object identity for composite objects. Object identity refers to that trait which distinguishes an object from all others. The different semantics associated with creating composite objects and adding parts to composites are discussed and a set of basic identity-based change operations for composites, including separation and elimination operations, are described. Formalizing the operations relating to composite objects aids in improving current spatial data models and leads to advances in spatial-temporal query languages.
Modelling Changes and Events in Dynamic Spatial Systems With Reference to Socio-Economic Units
, 1998
"... Introduction The large majority of current systems for handling geospatial information are static, concentrating on a single temporal snapshot, usually the current state. Changes in the application domain are tracked in the system by performing updates and erasing information on the past. In recent ..."
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Cited by 11 (2 self)
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Introduction The large majority of current systems for handling geospatial information are static, concentrating on a single temporal snapshot, usually the current state. Changes in the application domain are tracked in the system by performing updates and erasing information on the past. In recent years there has evolved a body of research, both in the general database community (Snodgrass 1992) and in the spatial database community (Al Taha et al 1993) for adding temporal dimensions. That research addresses the issue of `time in the system', where the challenge is to provide computational models that enable past, current and future states of the application domain (valid time) and the system (transaction time) to be handled in the temporal database. Work presented in this chapter, however, is concerned with a different aspect of temporal systems, referred to as `the system in time', where we are concerned to handle in a dynamic system a model of the r
Processes and events in dynamic geo-networks
, 2005
"... Abstract. Traditional spatial information systems hold only a single state of the ‘real world’. However, geographic phenomena have not only static but dynamic characteristics. The work described in this paper contributes to the general research effort toward a generic ontology of dynamic geographic- ..."
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Cited by 10 (1 self)
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Abstract. Traditional spatial information systems hold only a single state of the ‘real world’. However, geographic phenomena have not only static but dynamic characteristics. The work described in this paper contributes to the general research effort toward a generic ontology of dynamic geographic-scale phenomena and its application to the provi-sion of modeling, analysis, and retrieval of data in a spatio-temporal GIS. These issues are addressed in this paper with reference to dynamic geo-networks, that is, networks embedded in a (2-dimensional) geographic space. After an introductory and motivational section, the basic onto-logical categories of events and states are discussed. The paper develops these ideas in the context of flows in dynamic geo-networks, and goes on to discuss the possible kinds of causal relations. The paper concludes with an overview of the results and pointers to further research directions. 1
Interaction with GIS attribute data based on categorical coverages
- In European Conference Spatial Information Theory - COSIT
, 1993
"... The human-computer interface is a crucial element in the design of the next generation of Geographic Information Systems (GISs). We discuss the user interface design process by separating the formalization of the problem domain (identifying the objects a user manipulates, and their pertinent ope ..."
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Cited by 10 (1 self)
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The human-computer interface is a crucial element in the design of the next generation of Geographic Information Systems (GISs). We discuss the user interface design process by separating the formalization of the problem domain (identifying the objects a user manipulates, and their pertinent operations) from its visualization (describing human-computer interaction techniques such as windows and dialog boxes). This framework is used to examine the process of manipulating attribute data in a GIS on the basis of the common cartographic concept of a categorical coverage. The characteristics of categorical coverage data and the user requirements for interacting with this data are formalized in the form of a set of fundamental objects and operations. A visualization for a windows-icons-menus-pointing devices (WIMP) interface is presented.
A Theory Of Empirical Spatial Knowledge Supporting Rough Set Based Knowledge Discovery in Geographic Databases
- University of Otago
, 1998
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