Distinguishing instances and evidence of geographical concepts for geospatial database design

Abstract

In many geoscientific disciplines concepts are regularly discovered and modified, but the architecture of our geospatial information systems is primarily aimed at supporting static conceptual structures. This results in a semantic gap between our evolving understanding of these concepts and how they are represented in our systems. The research reported here provides better database support for geographical concepts that evolve with particular situations. To reduce the potential for schema change in such environments, we develop an analysis of the structure and function of situated geographical concepts and directly model the results in an UML schema. The developed schema explicitly contextualizes geographic information and concepts, enabling the extraction of contexts and interpretations from databases. This aids (1) the uncovering of the implicit aspects of data, (2) the addition of empirical components to geoscientific ontology, and (3) enhances the context represented in geo-databases. Prototype implementations that show promise for managing geoscientific ontologies and databases are also briefly discussed.