GeoMergeP: Supporting an Ontological Approach to Geographic Information Integration

Since 90's, several new approaches providing solutions to integrated or federated systems have been defined. In particular, with respect to geographic information systems, proposals of integration did not take long time to appear. However, applicability of many of those approaches is still unlikely. In this context, we introduce an ontology-based approach - the GeoMergeP system - aiming at improving the capabilities of the integration process. In this paper we propose a methodology composed of two main process, semantic enrichment (by adding information about the ISO 19100 standard) and merging. The last one performs some tasks automatically and guides the user in performing other tasks for which his/her intervention is required. Finally, a plugin of the ontology editor, Protege, is presented showing how the method is implemented through a case study.

1. Introduction

In last years geographic information is taken more and more attention. The construction of new technologies as GPS (Global Positioning System) devices, the new needs of the market, and the offer of free software and tools to recover, work and store geographic information, have generated a new explosion in this area. Old aspects, analyzed several years ago, have emerged to be combined to new research topics. New visualization techniques, new devices to capture data, and new requirements to implement these systems are some of reasons that contribute to put the geographic systems into research again.