Geographical Ontologies: An Overview

1. Geographical Ontologies: An Overview Gilberto Camara National Institute for Space Research, Brazil Licence: Creative Commons ̶̶̶̶ By Attribution ̶̶̶̶ Non Commercial ̶̶̶̶ Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

2. What’s out there?

3. Hic sunt leones et dragones What’s out there?

4. What’s out there? fonte: Carlos Nobre

5. What’s out there? Reality

6. Data Data GIS A GIS B FormatB Format A What’s out there? Lake Habitat

7. The realist perspective (John Searle) 1. There is a real world that exists independently of us, our experiences, our thoughts and our language. 2. We have direct perceptual access to that world through our senses and our measurement devices. 3. Words in our language can be used to refer to real objects in the world. 4. Our statements are typically true of false depending on whether they correspond to the facts in the real world. 5. Some features of the world exist independently of us, such as mountains and lakes. Some features of the world are dependent on a socially-constructed agreements, such as boroughs and land parcels.

8. Humans before language: cave paintings 17,000 BCE, Lascaux, France

9. It all begins with observations… What’s out there? We use words in our language to describe the world

10. What’s out there?

11. Fromanaloguespacesto digital spaces

12. mobile devices • social network • Mobile devices, crowdsourcing, massive Earth observation sets: new technologies, new challenges sensorseverywhere ubiquitousimagery

13. Geoinformatics enables crucial links between nature and society Nature: Physical equations Describe processes Society: Decisions on how to Use Earth´s resources

14. From data to computer representations X,Y,Z X,Y,Z X,Y,Z X,Y,Z X,Y,Z EVENTS / POINT SAMPLES SURFACES / REGULAR GRIDS AREA DATA / POLYGONS FLUX DATA / NETWORKS

15. Digital spaces: Social exclusion in São Paulo iex 1991 2000

16. Digital space: Flows in networks

17. Digital spaces: Crime mapping in Calgary (CA)

19. Representation The Medieval King has in him two Bodies: a Body natural, and a Body politic. Representations of the King fulfill a key political function

20. Representation The King had two bodies: Otho III, holding a royal orb, inside a mandorla. Vivet et non vivit

21. Representation "Mosaic in the Martorana at Palermo, representing the coronation of King Roger II at the hands of Christ, where the desired effect of making the God manifest in the king was achieved by a striking facial resemblance between Roger and Christ." Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology (Princeton: 1957) 65

22. Conceptual models: built from abstractions

23. System designer view of spatial data Spatial Data Natural Domain Human Domain INFRASTRUCTURE -roads -utilities -dams CADASTRAL DATA -parcels -streets -land use CENSUS DATA -Demographics -Economics IMAGES -planes -satellites ENVIRONMENTAL DATA -topography -soils -temperature -hidrography -geology

24. A geographical ontology Geographical reality Natural objects Social objects identity boundaries properties

25. Geographical reality identity Geo-objects observations boundaries Natural objects Social objects properties attributes Fields

26. Boundaries: a key concept of social objects

27. The enclaves ofBaale-Hartog

28. India-Bangladesh enclaves

29. DahalaKhagrabari: a 3rd order enclave

30. Büsingen in Germany

31. What makes a sovereign state?

32. Republic of Crimea?

33. It all begins with observations… What’s out there? The continuously changing landscape of the Earth (topography) Mountains with names (Alps, Mont Blanc)

34. It all begins with observations… What’s out there? Fields (coverages) objects The continuously changing landscape of the Earth (topography) Mountains with names (Alps, Mont Blanc)

35. What about objects? Mont Blanc Objects are language constructs, built upon observations They require both an external reality and a conscious act to identify their existence

36. Objects as mental constructions derived from physical reality Mont Blanc “Mont Blanc” is a socially-accepted name for a specific topographic feature Where does “Mont Blanc” start and “Dôme du Goûter” end?

37. Objects as mental constructions derived from physical reality Walrus W1 To understand animal behaviour, we tag them and assign them an identity

38. Objects as mental constructions derived from physical reality Walrus W1 To understand animal behaviour, we tag them, assign them an identity and track their movements

39. Objects as mental constructs derived from social reality “Germany (1914)” is a geographical object whose existence is defined by laws and treaties Die Proklamation des Deutschen Kaiserreiches 1871

40. Objects as mental constructs derived from social reality “Germany (2013)” is a geographical object whose existence is defined by laws and treaties Einigunsvertrag 1990 Two-plus-Four Agreement 1990

41. Was Germany a nation before it were a state? Germania, in a 1834 fresco. When did Germany start to exist? What were the boundaries of Germany when Goethe lived?

42. The trajectory of German borders

43. Boundaries of natural and social objects may coincide (but are not the same) The boundaries of the Republic of Cuba are not the boundaries of the island of Cuba (think of Guantánamo)

44. Natural objects: we measure properties in reality… Map showing main topographical features in Europe.

45. …but always inside a bounding space… Where is Europe in this map? Map showing main topographical features in Europe.

46. The natural world has continuous spatial variation Temperature, Waterph, soilacidity...

47. Properties of natural objects can be continuous For every point inside Europe, there is a height measurement Map showing main topographical features in Europe.

48. Soils map of Europe

49. Soils map of Europe How real are those boundaries?

50. Fields as a Generic Data Typefor Big Spatial Data Gilberto Camara, Max J. Egenhofer, KarineFerreira, Pedro Andrade, Gilberto Queiroz, AlberSanchez, Jim Jones, and LubiaVinhas image: INPE