Abstract

In this presentation, I will provide a succinct overview of the research conducted on geospatial semantics and ontology over the past two decades. I'll highlight seminal works that marked various stages of development within this field, emphasizing their strong connections with the most advanced technologies during their respective periods. By reflecting on this historical progression, I aim to contextualize the current research on geospatial semantics within the emerging wave of GeoAI. More specifically, I will delve into the integral role geospatial semantics plays in aiding AI in spatial and temporal reasoning. I will showcase cutting-edge techniques, such as knowledge graphs and spatially explicit machine learning, to illustrate how geospatial semantics can significantly contribute to these advancements. Towards the conclusion of the talk, I will point out challenges and opportunities to bridge geospatial semantics and GeoAI, envisioning a pathway for future research in this interdisciplinary field.

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Materials

Slides for the presentation

Video with audio of the presentation and discussion  

Introduction to S4 Series and Rui Zhu's presentation

References

Mark, D. M., Freksa, C., Hirtle, S. C., Lloyd, R., & Tversky, B. (1999). Cognitive models of geographical space. International journal of geographical information science, 13(8), 747-774. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/136588199241003 (DOI: 10.1080/136588199241003)

Frank, A. U. (2003). Ontology for spatio-temporal databases. In Spatio-temporal databases: The chorochronos approach (pp. 9-77). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-45081-8_2

Kuhn, W. (2005). Geospatial semantics: why, of what, and how?. In Journal on data semantics III (pp. 1-24). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.  

Couclelis, H. (2010). Ontologies of geographic information. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 24(12), 1785-1809. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13658816.2010.484392 (DOI: 10.1080/13658816.2010.484392)

Janowicz, K., Scheider, S., Pehle, T., & Hart, G. (2012). Geospatial semantics and linked spatiotemporal data–Past, present, and future. Semantic Web, 3(4), 321-332. https://content.iospress.com/articles/semantic-web/sw077 (DOI: 10.3233/SW-2012-0077)

Janowicz, K., Van Harmelen, F., Hendler, J. A., & Hitzler, P. (2015). Why the data train needs semantic rails. AI Magazine, 36(1), 5-14. https://ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/2560 (DOI: 10.1609/aimag.v36i1.2560)

Zhu, R., Hu, Y., Janowicz, K., & McKenzie, G. (2016). Spatial signatures for geographic feature types: Examining gazetteer ontologies using spatial statistics. Transactions in GIS, 20(3), 333-355. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/tgis.12232 (DOI: 10.1111/tgis.12232)

Zhu, R., Janowicz, K., Cai, L., & Mai, G. (2022). Reasoning over higher-order qualitative spatial relations via spatially explicit neural networks. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 36(11), 2194-2225. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13658816.2022.2092115 (DOI: 10.1080/13658816.2022.2092115)