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Geosemantic Interoperability and the Geospatial Semantic Web

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Springer Handbook of Geographic Information

Part of the book series: Springer Handbooks ((SHB))

Abstract

This chapter gives an account of the semantic interoperability of geographic information and the various elements involved in it. After providing some historical background in Sects. 17.1–17.3 introduce some basic notions about how human beings abstract phenomena and represent them in human memory. This is fundamental for understanding the purpose of semantics in interoperability. This leads us to introduce the concept of ontology in Sect. 17.4, where we describe its role with respect to semantics. Based on these notions, semantic interoperability of geographic information (i.e., geosemantic interoperability) is then compared in Sect. 17.5 to a communication process. Typically, the interoperability of geographic information is implemented by way of geospatial data infrastructures (SDI), and Sect. 17.6 describes the implementation of geosemantic interoperability through SDI with the introduction of the geospatial information environment. Standards are fundamental to interoperability for geographic information, and Sect. 17.7 provides an overview of the contribution of standards bodies with respect to geosemantic interoperability, including the development of ontologies. Then, Sect. 17.8 provides a description of the valuable contribution the Semantic Web to semantic interoperability and the description of the geospatial Semantic Web. Finally, the conclusion provides some concluding remarks on the chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Recherche GéoSémantic, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

    Jean Brodeur

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  1. Jean Brodeur
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Correspondence to Jean Brodeur .

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  1. University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg, Neubrandenburg, Germany

    Wolfgang Kresse

  2. Esri, Vienna, VA, USA

    David Danko

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Brodeur, J. (2022). Geosemantic Interoperability and the Geospatial Semantic Web. In: Kresse, W., Danko, D. (eds) Springer Handbook of Geographic Information. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53125-6_17

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