KOIOS: Utilizing semantic search for easy-access and visualization of structured environmental data

Abstract

With the increasing interest in environmental issues, the amount of publicly available environmental data on the Web is continuously growing. Despite its importance, the uptake of environmental information by the ordinary Web users is still very limited due to intransparent access to complex and distributed databases. As a remedy to this problem, in this work, we propose the use of semantic search technologies recently developed as an intuitive way to easily access structured data and lower the barriers to obtain information satisfying user information needs. Our proposed system, namely KOIOS, enables a simple, keyword-based search on structured environmental data and built on top of a commercial Environmental Information System (EIS). A prototype system successfully shows that applying semantic search techniques this way provides intuitive means for search and access to complex environmental information. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.