Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space

Geographic Information Science, 2002

We apply the notion of conceptual integration from cognitive science to model the semantics of geographic categories. The paper shows the basic ideas, using the classical integration example of houseboats and boathouses. It extends the notion with image-schematic and affordance-based structure. A formalization in the functional language Haskell tests this approach and demonstrates how it generalizes to a powerful paradigm for building ontologies.

Advances in Consciousness Research, 2000

The formal specification of spatial objects and spatial relations is at the core of geographic data exchange and interoperability for GIS. It is necessary that the representation of such objects and relations comes close to how people use them in their everyday lives, i.e., that these specifications are built upon elements of human spatial cognition. Image schemata have been suggested as highly abstract and structured mental patterns to capture spatial and similar physical as well as metaphorical relations between objects in the experiential world. We assume that image-schematic details for large-scale (geographic) space are potentially different from imageschematic details for small-scale (table-top) space. This paper reviews methods for the formal description of spatial relations and integrates them in a categorical view. We give examples of image-schematic specifications for large-scale (PATH) and small-scale (CONTAINER, SURFACE) space. Such specifications should provide a foundation for further research on formalizing elements of human spatial cognition for interoperability in GIS.

AGILE: GIScience Series

The visualization of semantic information provides new ways for knowledge acquisition and access, since it enables users to explore and understand the meaning of information, as well as to identify associations among data and connections to existing knowledge. Maps on the other hand are extensively used as symbolic representations of spatial reality. Lately, researchers have delved deeper into formalizing the connection between the map and the semantics it conveys using knowledge-based formalisms such as knowledge graphs, ontologies, and linked data. Semantic visualization techniques may also enrich maps with the knowledge immanent therein and support knowledge visualization and exploration. The present paper describes the development of a webbased prototypical application that contains a spatial and a semantic component that interact. In addition to the representation of geospatial entities as cartographic features, the graph-based representation of semantic information is also implemented, to enable users to explore and understand the meaning and semantic relations between concepts and entities that appear on the map.

2007

This paper introduces a user model to describe in a systematic way the spatial relations among objects in the space surrounding the user with the respect to the application context. Our study is addressed to provide the right binding between those relations and operators provided by geometric models.

Proceedings of GIS Research UK (GISRUK 2010), 2010

1988

Spatial information systems are large collections of spatial and non-spatial data on top of tailored database management systems with interactive analysis being the rule rather than an exception. Current database query languages, which are well-suited to treat alphanumeric data, do not reflect the properties of spatial data. In order to visualize the power needed for a spatial query language, a user interface is designed which gives specific considerations tc the coexistence of repiesent'ations as graphical renderings, such as maps, and lexical listings, such as tables. The different properties of spatial and non-spatial data give rise to lexical formulations of queries in combination with references to graphical 'objects' or areas on maps. In particular, immediate reference to objects on drawings with direct manipulation devices is a crucial technique to be embedded in the interaction. Variation of graphical presentations by colors, patterns, etc. requires appropriate tools in the interface to manipulate the presentation of spatial objects. These issues are visualized in a sample session by a sequence of interface snapshots.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007

The paper is devoted to problems of computer metaphors,, such as Interface metaphor and Visualization metaphor. Interface metaphor is considered as the basic idea of likening between interactive objects and model objects of the application domain. A visualization metaphor is defined as a map establishing the correspondence between concepts and objects of the application domain under modeling and a system of some similarities and analogies. This map generates a set of views and a set of methods for communication with visual objects. Some positions of the metaphor theory are discussed. Concept of metaphor action is suggested.. "Formula" of metaphor is constructed. A set of examples of metaphor was analyzed. Aprioristic quality criteria of interface and visualization metaphors are suggested. These criteria allow evaluating as existing metaphors and to search for adequate metaphors for designing new specialized systems.

Conference companion on Human factors in computing …, 1995

The relations among graphical representations, computer functionality, and everyday objects are more complex than terms like "the desktop metaphor" may suggest. While metaphors in the everyday world highlight similarities between preexisting entities, interface metaphors create new ones. But new computer entities can also be created without using metaphor, when existing ones are combined via conceptual structuring and the results expressed via iconic perceptual mappings.. Naming such constructs involves yet another metaphor, however, between the functionality suggested graphically and that implied by the name. In sum, interface representations -which can only be called "metaphors" metaphorically -are complex and confusing, but this leads to a flexibility and power that may be lost if simpler mappings are used.

Geospatial semantics is a broad field that involves a variety of research areas. The term semantics refers to the meaning of things, and is in contrast with the term syntactics. Accordingly, studies on geospatial semantics usually focus on understanding the meaning of geographic entities as well as their counterparts in the cognitive and digital world, such as cognitive geographic concepts and digital gazetteers. Geospatial semantics can also facilitate the design of geographic information systems (GIS) by enhancing the interoperability of distributed systems and developing more intelligent interfaces for user interactions. During the past years, a lot of research has been conducted, approaching geospatial semantics from different perspectives, using a variety of methods, and targeting different problems. Meanwhile, the arrival of big geo data, especially the large amount of unstructured text data on the Web, and the fast development of natural language processing methods enable new research directions in geospatial semantics. This chapter, therefore, provides a systematic review on the existing geospatial semantic research. Six major research areas are identified and discussed, including semantic interoperability, digital gazetteers, geographic information retrieval, geospatial Semantic Web, place semantics, and cognitive geographic concepts.

Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2001

An exponentially growing volume of digital information makes extraction of relevant items increasingly difficult. This article documents the adoption of information visualization tools by researchers in the disciplines of geography, computer science, and information science to facilitate exploration of very large data archives. Graphic depiction of database content (or the database "semantics") can be based on a spatial or even a geographic metaphor. Such depictions, often called information spaces or information worlds, provide one example of "spatialization." Various forms of spatialized views are critiqued in this article. To date, systematic approaches to the creation of spatialized views have lacked solid theoretical foundations. Three spatial frames of reference are presented to formalize and visualize semantic spatialized views: geographic space, cognitive space, and Benediktine space. Application to an example of a very large online catalog (GEOREF) highlights the underlying assumptions of the space types and demonstrates what spatial properties are preserved for each proposed approach.

Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, 2014

In many applications, the management of geographic knowledge is very important especially not only for urban and environmental planning, but also for any application in territorial intelligence. However there are several practical problems hindering the efficiency, some of them being technical and other being more conceptual. The goal of this paper is to present a tentative conceptual framework for managing practical geographic knowledge taking account of accuracy, rotundity of earth, the mobility of objects, multiplerepresentation, multi-scale, existence of sliver polygons, differences in classifying real features (ontologies), the many-to-many relationship of place names (gazetteers) and the necessity of interoperability. In other words, this framework must be robust against scaling, generalization and small measurement errors. Therefore, geographic objects must be distinguished into several classes of objects with different properties, namely geodetic objects, administrative objects, manmade objects and natural objects. Regarding spatial relations, in addition to conventional topological and projective relations, other relations including tessellations and ribbon topology relations are presented in order to help model geographic objects by integrating more practical semantics. Any conceptual framework is based on principles which are overall guidelines and rules; moreover, principles allow at making predictions and drawing implications and are finally the basic building blocks of theoretical models. But before identifying the principles, one needs some preliminary considerations named prolegomena. In our case, principles will be essentially rules for transforming geographic knowledge whereas prolegomena will be assertions regarding more the foundations of geographic science. Based on those considerations, 12 principles are given, preceded by 12 prolegomena. For instance, some principles deal with the transformation of spatial relationships based on visual acuity and granularity of interest, with the influence of neighboring information and cross-boundary interoperability. New categories of geographic knowledge types are presented, spatial facts, cluster of areas, flows of persons, goods, etc., topological constraints and co-location rules. To represent knowledge chunks, three styles are presented, based respectively on descriptive logics, XML and visual languages. To conclude this paper, after having defined contexts of interpretation, an example of visual language to manage geographic knowledge is proposed.

2002

The aim of our research is to provide GIS users with a visual environment where they can formulate spatial queries which implicitly capture the double nature of geographical data. In particular, in this paper we propose an extension to the MGISQL visual environment, where users may pose 3D queries about those phenomena where the third dimension is a relevant feature for data retrieving. The interaction between users and the visual environment is performed by manipulating 3D geometaphors. The underlying algebra for spatial operators is enriched accordingly. Visual queries are composed in a 3D environment, called the Sensitive Cube, characterized by the 3D geometaphors, visualized as 'floating objects'. A prototype of the 3D MGISQL visual environment has been realized, which allows users to query an archaeologicalgeographical database, whose experimental data refer to a site located around the city of Salerno.

in N. Guarino (ed.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems, Amsterdam, IOS Press, 1998

This paper is concerned with certain ontological issues in the foundations of geographic representation. It sets out what these basic issues are, describes the tools needed to deal with them, and draws some implications for a general theory of spatial representation. Our approach has ramifications in the domains of mereology, topology, and the theory of location, and the question of the interaction of these three domains within a unified spatial representation theory is addressed. In the final part we also consider the idea of nonstandard geographies, which may be associated with geography under a classical conception in the same sense in which non-standard logics are associated with classical logic.

Many approaches have been used for querying spatial databases, but they rarely distinguish between expert users and "naive" ones. Two main approaches can be considered as interesting ways of querying and interacting with spatial and multimedia data, extended query languages on the one hand, and hypermedia techniques on the other hand. In this paper, we propose a framework for a navigational user interface model that will use both hypermedia and query language approaches. Navigation methods will use two types of links, explicit hypermedia links on the one hand, implicit and dynamic ones on the other hand which are based on spatial relationships between entities. We also propose different kinds of navigation strategies that will be usable and hopefully accepted by general public-like users.

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2010