Editing Geographic information system (section)

===Semantics===
Tools and technologies emerging from the [[World Wide Web Consortium]]'s [[Semantic Web]] are proving useful for [[data integration]] problems in information systems. Correspondingly, such technologies have been proposed as a means to facilitate [[interoperability]] and data reuse among GIS&nbsp;applications and also to enable new analysis mechanisms.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zhang |first1=Chuanrong |last2=Zhao |first2=Tian |last3=Li |first3=Weidong |title=Geospatial Semantic Web |date=2015 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-319-17801-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fonseca |first1=Frederico | last2 = Sheth | first2 = Amit |journal=UCGIS White Paper | title= The Geospatial Semantic Web |year=2002 |url = http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/f/u/fuf1/Fonseca-Sheth.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fonseca |first1=Frederico | last2 = Egenhofer | first2 = Max |journal=Proc. ACM International Symposium on Geographic Information Systems |title= Ontology-Driven Geographic Information Systems |year=1999 |pages=14–19 |citeseerx=10.1.1.99.5206 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Perry | first1 = Matthew | last2 = Hakimpour | first2 = Farshad | last3 = Sheth | first3 = Amit | journal = Proc. ACM International Symposium on Geographic Information Systems | title = Analyzing Theme, Space and Time: an Ontology-based Approach | url = http://knoesis.wright.edu/library/download/ACM-GIS_06_Perry.pdf | year = 2006 | pages = 147–154 | access-date = 2007-05-29 | archive-date = 2007-06-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070614120623/http://knoesis.wright.edu/library/download/ACM-GIS_06_Perry.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref>

[[Ontology (computer science)|Ontologies]] are a key component of this semantic approach as they allow a formal, machine-readable specification of the concepts and relationships in a given domain. This in turn allows a GIS to focus on the intended meaning of data rather than its syntax or structure. For example, [[reasoning]] that a land cover type classified as ''deciduous needleleaf trees'' in one dataset is a specialization or subset of land cover type ''forest'' in another more roughly classified dataset can help a GIS automatically merge the two datasets under the more general land cover classification. Tentative ontologies have been developed in areas related to GIS&nbsp;applications, for example the hydrology ontology<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/ontology/|title=Ordnance Survey Ontologies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070521025424/http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/ontology/|archive-date=21 May 2007}}</ref> developed by the [[Ordnance Survey]] in the [[United Kingdom]] and the SWEET ontologies<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sweet.jpl.nasa.gov/ontology/ |title=Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070529200940/http://sweet.jpl.nasa.gov/ontology/ |archive-date=29 May 2007 }}</ref> developed by [[NASA]]'s [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]]. Also, simpler ontologies and semantic metadata standards are being proposed by the W3C Geo Incubator Group<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/geo/|title= W3C Geospatial Incubator Group}}</ref> to represent geospatial data on the web. [[GeoSPARQL]] is a standard developed by the Ordnance Survey, [[United States Geological Survey]], [[Natural Resources Canada]], Australia's [[Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation]] and others to support ontology creation and reasoning using well-understood OGC literals (GML, WKT), topological relationships (Simple Features, RCC8, DE-9IM), RDF and the [[SPARQL]] database query protocols.

Recent research results in this area can be seen in the International Conference on Geospatial Semantics<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.geosco.org/|title= International Conferences on Geospatial Semantics}}</ref> and the Terra Cognita – Directions to the Geospatial Semantic Web<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/partnerships/research/research/terracognita.html|title=Terra Cognita 2006 – Directions to the Geospatial Semantic Web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518054232/http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/partnerships/research/research/terracognita.html|archive-date=18 May 2007}}</ref> workshop at the International Semantic Web Conference.