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| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/D002834/1 |
| Title: |
Foundational Ontology for Geographic Information |
| Principal Investigator: |
Dr B Bennett |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-investigator: |
| Professor AG Cohn |
Dr JG Stell |
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| Project Partner: |
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| Department: |
Sch of Computing |
| Organisation: |
University of Leeds |
| Scheme: |
First Grant Scheme |
| Starts: |
01 March 2006 |
Ends: |
30 April 2008 |
Value (£): |
120,509
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Information and Knowledge Management |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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| Related Grants: |
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| Panel History: |
| Panel Date | Panel Name | Outcome |
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27 Apr 2005
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Computer Science Panel (Tech) 27th April 2005
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Announced
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Summary |
An "ontology" is a precise specification of the meanings of a vocabulary of concepts. In computer systems, ontologies provide a tool for robust and flexible manipulation of diverse data. They can support transfer of information between systems, and also allow the presentation of information to be customised to a user's requirements.
The domain of geography is one where there is a real and widely recognised need for ontology. Geographic Information Systems are of increasing importance in both commercial and governmental planning. Effective use of these systems requires high-level, flexible mechanisms for accessing the data. Moreover, in many situations one would like to combine information from several sources that may organise their data in very different ways.
The geographic realm presents particular challenges to the formulation of an adequate ontology. Geographic classifications are highly affected by ambiguity, vagueness and context sensitivity; so establishing a precise relationship between geographic terms and the physical reality they describe is problematic.
The proposed project seeks to develop an ontology based on rigorous principles of knowledge representation using formal logic. This will build on foundational theories of space, time, material objects and processes, which have been a focus of previous research conducted at Leeds. These theories will provide a framework within which specifically geographic concepts and relationships will be defined.
The representation used to express our ontology will explicitly model of the vagueness present in the high-level vocabulary of natural language. It is proposed to employ a novel approach called "Standpoint Semantics". This models the variable meaning of vague concepts in terms of threshold values for objective properties. For instance a relevant property for distinguishing lakes and rivers is rate of water flow. A given "standpoint" is associated with a particular choice of threshold separating bodies considered "flowing" from those considered "still". (Prototype software has already been developed at Leeds that implements a standpoint semantics for geographic water features. It allows concept definitions to be inspected and modified, and will automatically label a map in accordance with these definitions.)
Detailed ontology construction will focus on the geographic realm and in particular on concepts relating to
a) hydrographic features (lakes, rivers, canals, marshes etc),
b) the built environment (buildings, roads, towns etc).
which have been the subject of pilot projects at Leeds.
During the course of the project we shall develop a web-based resource to enable collation and maintenance of our ontology and will allow researchers around the world to access our theories.
The project will involve close collaboration with the Research and Innovation group of Ordnance Survey, UK's national mapping agency, who will be providing geographic data, expertise and a significant financial contribution to the project. Ordnance Survey have recently undertaken a major upgrade of data-storage and delivery systems and are collating their map data within a feature-based object-oriented framework known as "MasterMap". In order to organise and provide flexible access to this data they wish to develop an ontology that would enable this information to be interpreted at a conceptual level. This would allow integration with other data sources and customisable presentation of map information.
Collaboration is also planned with the Laboratory for Applied Ontology in Trento, the Institute of Formal Ontology in Information Systems in Saarbrucken and the Institut fur Geoinformatik in Muenster.
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| Final Report Summary |
An "ontology" is a precise specification of the meanings of a vocabulary of concepts. In computer systems, ontologies provide a tool for robust and flexible manipulation of diverse data. They can support transfer of information between systems, and also allow the presentation of information to be customised to a user's requirements.
The domain of geography is one where there is a real and widely recognised need for ontology. Geographic Information Systems are of increasing importance in both commercial and governmental planning. Effective use of these systems requires high-level, flexible mechanisms for accessing the data. Moreover, in many situations one would like to combine information from several sources that may organise their data in very different ways.
The geographic realm presents particular challenges to the formulation of an adequate ontology. Geographic classifications are highly affected by ambiguity, vagueness and context sensitivity; so establishing a precise relationship between geographic terms and the physical reality they describe is problematic.
The main aim of the project was to develop an ontology based on rigorous principles of knowledge representation using formal logic. This work built upon foundational theories of space, time, material objects and processes, which have been a focus of previous research conducted at Leeds. These theories were applied to defining specifically geographic concepts and relationships.
The representation used incorporated an explicit model of the vagueness present in high-level natural language vocabulary, based on a novel approach called "Standpoint Semantics". This models the variable meaning of vague concepts in terms of threshold values for objective properties. For instance a relevant property for distinguishing lakes and rivers is rate of water flow. A given "standpoint" is associated with a particular choice of threshold separating bodies considered "flowing" from those considered "still". Prototype software was developed implementing a standpoint semantics for geographic water features. This allows concept definitions to be inspected and modified, and automatically labels map data in accordance with these definitions.
The work focused in particular on concepts relating to hydrographic features (lakes, rivers, canals, marshes etc), but vegetation features and features of the built environment were also investigated.
During the course of the project a web-based resource was developed to enable collation and maintenance of the ontology and to allow researchers around the world to access our theories.
The project involved collaboration with the Research and Innovation group of Ordnance Survey, UK's national mapping agency, who provided geographic data, expertise and a significant financial contribution to the project. Ordnance Survey have recently undertaken a major upgrade of data-storage and delivery systems and are collating their map data within a feature-based object-oriented framework known as "MasterMap". In order to organise and provide flexible access to this data they wish to develop an ontology that will enable this information to be interpreted at a conceptual level. This would allow integration with other data sources and customisable presentation of map information.
Collaborative research visits took place to the Laboratory for Applied Ontology in Trento, and the Institut fur Geoinformatik in Muenster. The project also benefited from interaction with the
Ontogenisis ontology project and workshops held by EnvO, a group of researchers into Environmental Ontology. The project was concluded with a very successful workshop on the theme of "Geographic Ontologies, Grounding and Vagueness".
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.leeds.ac.uk |
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