Use of ontology and cluster ensembles for geospatial clustering analysis

Abstract

Geospatial clustering is an important topic in spatial analysis and knowledge discovery research. However, most existing clustering methods clusters geospatial data at data level without considering domain knowledge and users' goals during the clustering process. In this paper, we propose an ontology-based geospatial cluster ensemble approach to produce good clustering results with the consideration of domain knowledge and users' goals. The approach includes two components: an ontology-based expert system and a cluster ensemble method. The ontology-based expert system is to represent geospatial and clustering domain knowledge and to identify the appropriate clustering components (e.g., geospatial datasets, attributes of the datasets, and clustering methods) based on a specific application requirement. The cluster ensemble is to combine a diverse set of clustering results produced by recommended clustering components into an optimal clustering result. A real case study has been conducted to demonstrate the efficiency and practicality of the approach. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.