Premium
The B asic F ormal O ntology as a Reference Framework for Modeling the Evolution of Administrative Units
Author(s) -
Gantner Felix,
Waldvogel Bettina,
Meile Rolf,
Laube Patrick
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
transactions in gis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.721
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9671
pISSN - 1361-1682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9671.2012.01356.x
Subject(s) - interoperability , ontology , computer science , set (abstract data type) , ontology based data integration , information retrieval , database , data model (gis) , data mining , world wide web , semantic web , artificial intelligence , programming language , philosophy , epistemology
In information systems, ontologies promise advantages such as enhanced interoperability, knowledge sharing, and integration of data sources. In this article, we show that the upper ontology B asic F ormal O ntology can facilitate the modeling of an evolution of administrative units. This is demonstrated by creating a spatiotemporal ontology for the administrative units of S witzerland. The ontology tackles the problem that the geometric data is typically captured by taking snapshots at regular intervals while the thematic data is continually updated. The ontology presented merges time‐stamped geometries with a formally described history of administrative units, allowing for complex spatiotemporal queries neither standard approach would support. The resulting populated knowledge base was evaluated against a set of spatiotemporal test queries. The evaluation showed that this knowledge base supports a wide range of queries on the evolution of the administrative units of S witzerland between 1960 and 2010.