Geospatial Semantics and the Semantic Web. Foundations, Algorithms, and Applications

178 Pages·2011·2.716 MB·English

by  Naveen Ashish, Amit P. Sheth (eds.)

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