Geospatial Semantics and the Semantic Web

178 Pages·2014·2.72 MB·English

Geospatial Semantics and the Semantic Web
SEMANTIC WEB AND BEYOND
Computing for Human Experience
SeriesEditors:
RameshJain AmitSheth
UniversityofCalifornia,Irvine WrightStateUniversity
http://ngs.ics.uci.edu/ http://knoesis.wright.edu/amit/
As computing becomes ubiquitous and pervasive, computing is increasingly
becoming an extension of human, modifying or enhancing human experience.
Today’s car reacts to human perception of danger with a series of computers
participatinginhowtohandlethevehicleforhumancommandandenvironmental
conditions. Proliferating sensors help with observations, decision making as
well as sensory modifications. The emergent semantic web will lead to machine
understandingof data and help exploitheterogeneous,multi-sourcedigital media.
Emerging applications in situation monitoring and entertainment applications are
resultingindevelopmentofexperientialenvironments.
SEMANTICWEBANDBEYOND
ComputingforHumanExperience
addressesthefollowinggoals:
ÿ brings together forward looking research and technology that will shape our
worldmoreintimatelythaneverbeforeascomputingbecomesanextensionof
humanexperience;
ÿ coversall aspects of computingthat is very closely tied to human perception,
understandingandexperience;
ÿ bringstogethercomputingthatdealwithsemantics,perceptionandexperience;
ÿ serves as the platform for exchange of both practical technologies and far
reachingresearch.
Forfurthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/7056
Naveen Ashish • Amit P. Sheth
Editors
Geospatial Semantics
and the Semantic Web
Foundations, Algorithms, and Applications
123
Editors
NaveenAshish AmitP.Sheth
UniversityofCaliforniaIrvine OhioCenterofExcellenceinKnowledge-
4308Calit2Building enabledComputing(Kno.e.sis)
IrvineCA92697 WrightStateUniversity
USA 3640ColonelGlennHighway
[email protected] 45435-0001DaytonOhio
USA
[email protected]
ISSN1559-7474
ISBN978-1-4419-9445-5 e-ISBN978-1-4419-9446-2
DOI10.1007/978-1-4419-9446-2
SpringerNewYorkDordrechtHeidelbergLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011929941
(cid:2)c SpringerScience+BusinessMedia,LLC2011
Allrightsreserved.Thisworkmaynotbetranslatedorcopiedinwholeorinpartwithoutthewritten
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SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com)
Preface
Theavailabilityofgeographicandgeo-spatialinformationandservices,especially
ontheopenWeb,hasbecomeabundantinthelastseveralyearswiththeproliferation
ofonlinemaps,geo-codingservices,geospatialWeb servicesandgeospatiallyen-
abledapplications.Concurrently,theneedforgeo-spatialreasoninghassignificantly
increasedinmanyeverydayapplicationsrangingfrompersonaldigitalassistants,to
Websearchapplicationsandlocalawaremobileservices,tospecializedsystemsin
criticalapplicationssuchasemergencyresponse,medicaltriaging,andintelligence
analysis to name a few. In response to the required “intelligent” information
processingcapabilities,thefieldofGeospatialSemanticshasemergedasanexciting
new discipline in the recent years. Broadly speaking geospatial semantics can
be defined as the area that focuses on the semantics aspect in geographic and
geo-spatial information processing i.e., where we can provide “meaning” to and
intelligenceinsuchinformationsystems.Thisnewareabringstogetherresearchers
from many different disciplines such as geographic and geo-spatial information
science, artificial intelligence – in particular the Semantic Web, and information
systems.Alternatedescriptionsofwhatgeospatialsemanticsisaboutcanbestated
as being the sub-area of geographic or geospatial information systems that deals
withknowledgedrivenorintelligentprocessingtechniques,ortheparticulardomain
applicationofsemanticstechnologiesthatdealwiththegeographicandgeospatial
domain.Workinthisareawasinitiatedjustafewyearsagobyvisionaryresearchers
whoforesawtheneedforexpandingerstwhileindividualdisciplinessuchasGISor
the Semantic Web. Despite being a nascent field by age, we have seen a prolific
amountofactivityinallarenas,beitbasicresearch,technicalproductdevelopment,
community efforts such as developing standards, or the realization of real-world
applicationspoweredbysuchtechnologies.
Our primarygoalinassemblingthiscollectionofworkingeospatialsemantics
is to provide a first of a kind, cohesive collection of recent research in the theme
of geospatial semantics. Additionally we have sought to present descriptions of
fundamentally new information systems applications that have a potential for
high impact and commercialization, and that become realizable with geospatial
v
vi Preface
semantic technologies. The discipline of geospatial semantics has really emerged
from a marriage between the erstwhile three separate areas of (1) Geographic
informationsystems(GIS)orgeo-spatialinformationprocessing,(2)SemanticWeb
technologies,and(3)Applicationsthataredrivingthedemandforsuchcapabilities,
especiallyinthecontextofrapidlyincreasinguseoflocation-awaremobiledevices.
We believe that the present is an appropriate stage to attempt to consolidate and
formallydefinethenewdisciplineofgeospatialsemantics.Theactivityinthisarea
has expanded the horizons of the existing disciplines of GIS, the Semantic Web,
as well as key applications. GIS techniques are now embellished with semantics
smarts,theSemanticWebtechnologieshavefoundanew“killerapplication”inthe
geo-spatialandGISdomains,andfundamentallynewkindsofcapabilitiesarenow
becomingrealizableinkeyinformationsystemsapplications.
This collection is mix of chapters on topics in the geospatial semantics area
coveringfoundationalaspects,infrastructure,aswellasinnovativeapplications.The
initialchapterscoverfoundationalaspectsonsemanticmodelingandrepresentation.
These are followed by semantic infrastructure related chapters on issues such as
effectivequerylanguagesaswellspatialcyber-infrastructure.Thelastthreechapters
arefocusedonapplicationsofgeospatialsemantictechnologiesinkeyareas,namely
earthobservationsystems,locationbasedaccesscontrolandmajorgeo-informatics
applicationssuchasTheNationalMap.
Chapter1presentsanapproachtorepresentingandmaintainingatimeseriesof
spatialontologies,thatisaimedataddressingtheproblemofretrievalofinformation
with a geospatial context but at possibly different times. Place names and their
geographicalcoverageevolveandchangewithtime,andthetimeseriescapability
attheontologylevelispresentedastheapproachtoachievingaccurateinformation
retrievalwithsuchevolution.
Chapter2providesanapproachtodealingwithsemanticsofgeoinformationin
terms of observable properties. The thesis in the chapter is that observations are
the principalsource of geographicinformationand the semantic representationof
suchobservationsattheappropriateabstractionlevelisakeychallengethatmustbe
addressed.
Chapter3 presentsSPARQL-ST, an extensionofthe SPARQL querylanguage,
forhandlingcomplexspatio-temporalqueriesoversemanticdata.
Chapter 4 is concerned with geospatial semantic infrastructure, in particular
considering spatial data infrastructures (SDI) as the basis for geospatial semantic
interoperability. Overall this work is concerned with the development of a path
towardsrealizingaspatialcyber-infrastructure.
Chapter5takesakeyapplicationarea,thatofearthobservationsystems(EOS)
and provides an approach for incorporating semantic awareness in such systems.
The approachis based on using ontologiesto providea semantic interpretationof
thedatacollectedbysuchearthobservationssystemsingeneral.
Chapter 6 provides an approach to addressing access control in the context of
locationbasedapplications.Anaccesscontrolsystembasedontherole-basedaccess
control(RBAC) mechanism is presented that enforceslocation as well as context
awareaccesscontrolpolicies.
Preface vii
Finally Chap.7 presents a description of the incorporation of semantics and
semantictechnologiesintheimportantNationalMapeffort.Thechapterrepresents
an important case study on the incorporation of semantics into a key geospatial
informationsystemnamelyTheNationalMap.

Contents
1 RepresentingandUtilizingChangingHistoricalPlaces
asanOntologyTimeSeries................................................. 1
EeroHyvo¨nen,JouniTuominen,TomiKauppinen,
andJariVa¨a¨ta¨inen
2 SemanticReferencingofGeosensorDataandVolunteered
GeographicInformation .................................................... 27
SimonScheider,CarstenKeßler,JensOrtmann,
AnusuriyaDevaraju,JohannesTrame,TomiKauppinen,
andWernerKuhn
3 SPARQL-ST: Extending SPARQL to Support
SpatiotemporalQueries..................................................... 61
MatthewPerry,PrateekJain,andAmitP.Sheth
4 SpatialCyberinfrastructure:Building New Pathways
forGeospatialSemanticsonExistingInfrastructures................... 87
FrancisHarveyandRobertG.Raskin
5 Ontology-BasedGeospatialApproachesfor Semantic
AwarenessinEarthObservationSystems................................. 97
KristinStock,GobeHobona,CarlosGranell,andMikeJackson
6 Location-BasedAccessControlUsingSemanticWebTechnologies.... 119
RigelGjomemoandIsabelF.Cruz
7 Topographic Mapping Data SemanticsThroughData
ConversionandEnhancement.............................................. 145
DaliaVaranka,JonathanCarter,E.LynnUsery,
andThomasShoberg
Index .............................................................................. 163
ix