Abstract
The international geospatial data community has long ago recognized the importance of open data and their contribution to SDGs and has a solid tradition in promoting geographic data sharing and interoperability and the operation of Spatial Data Infrastructures. Current technological advances in the field of the semantic web allow the enrichment of data with semantic interpretation capabilities that would lead to increased interoperability among data from different providers and advanced possibilities for the generation of new knowledge. In this fashion, the recent concept of Spatial Knowledge Infrastructures aims to upgrade traditional Spatial Data Infrastructures by the exploitation of semantic web technologies. Accordingly, the University of the Aegean develops services for spatial data semantic annotation and enrichment, integration with data from third-party sources, and semantic data management, querying, and visualization. These efforts aim to the implementation of a public Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure for the Aegean Archipelago, accessible by anyone in order to exploit its content for developing services and exporting spatial knowledge of added value. This paper presents our motives for the adoption of semantic web technologies, the technical components of the Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure, and our so far experience, including examples of the exploitation of the produced spatial knowledge.
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Notes
- 1.
Open Knowledge Foundation, Open Data Handbook, https://opendatahandbook.org.
- 2.
United Nations, The 17 Goals, https://sdgs.un.org/goals.
- 3.
European Commission, INSPIRE Directive, https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/inspire-directive/2.
- 4.
The University of the Aegean Spatial Data Infrastructure, https://sdi.aegean.gr.
- 5.
Documentation Systems for Islands, http://archipelago.aegean.gr.
- 6.
Information Risk Management Information System - Floods ERMIS-F, https://ermis-f.eu.
- 7.
URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) is a way for uniquely identifying web resources. In the traditional web is used for the unique identification of web pages.
- 8.
W3C Semantic Web Interest Group, Basic Geo Vocabulary, https://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/.
- 9.
Open Geospatial Consortium, GeoSPARQL—A Geographic Query Language for RDF Data, https://www.ogc.org/standards/geosparql.
- 10.
The Linked Open Data Cloud, https://lod-cloud.net/.
- 11.
Dublin Core, Ontology, https://www.dublincore.org/resources/glossary/ontology/.
- 12.
W3C, SPARQL Query Language for RDF, https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/.
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Funding
This research was funded by the Research e-Infrastructure [e-Aegean R&D Network], which is implemented within the framework of the “Regional Excellence” Action of the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation”. The action was co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Greek State [Partnership and Cooperation Agreement 2014–2020].
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Kopsachilis, V., Vachtsavanis, N., Vaitis, M. (2023). A Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure for the Aegean Archipelago. In: Klonari, A., De Lázaro y Torres, M.L., Kizos, A. (eds) Re-visioning Geography. Key Challenges in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40747-5_3
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