Events

Dr. Simon Scheider

16May2025 15:00 UTC

Protogeography - Validity of spatio-temporal models and maps as a means to answer questions

Abstract

In modern data-driven geography, the question of validity is often reduced to a matter of ground truth data. However, for many spatio-temporal modeling purposes, such an account of validity is insufficient. Not only is ground truth often unavailable, data-driven approaches also fail to account for fictive modeling scenarios as well as for various purposes of modeling. Given this central role in science, it is somewhat surprising to find that validity remains a rather obscure concept. In this talk, I take a pragmatic (action-based) approach to the validity of maps. I argue that spatio-temporal models, as well as their cartographic representations, are valid only when delivering a valid answer to a particular kind of spatio-temporal question, corresponding to its information purpose. Questions are about experiments including spatio-temporal controls and measures. The latter constitute information purposes of maps. I discuss a corresponding question-based grammar to formally distinguish among predictions, retrodictions, projections, and retrojective questions. Based on various examples, I show how the grammar can be used to better understand the purposes and validity concerns of models that include maps.

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Dr. Dalia Varanka

Cancelled 17December2024 15:00 UTC

A Topography Base Map through Words

Transformation of annotations to graphs to identify spatial data semantics using a grammar ontology

Large Language Models (LLM) depend on the availability of sufficient text data and primarily statistical processing techniques aided by applied ontologies to improve information search and extraction over large volumes of data sources. The extraction of relevant concepts and relationships of the input data consisting of feature type definitions can be structured as graph property patterns based on dependency relations among parts of speech. Dependency relations determine the domain and range classes forming patterns for information retrieval. Among these patterns are relative spatial and topological relations, nominal and ordinal data, and more. The application of topographic concepts organized by grammar patterns support retrieval augmented generation to improve LLM query results. The body of work involving semantic ontology and a syntactic lexicon serve similar traditional functions as topographic base maps have in cartography by utilizing the the user’s input content of topographic features and relations within their spatial context among each other while allowing extensions to other thematic data from the trained LLM. 

The Semantics of the World Historical Gazetteer

17April2024 15:00 UTC 

Abstract and Registration

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