Semantic Enablement for Spatial Data Infrastructures

TLDR

OGC standards provide the foundation for Spatial Data Infrastructures, yet geo‑semantics research has largely focused on isolated solutions or the Semantic Web, leaving SDI integration largely unexplored. The authors aim to establish a shared, transparent Semantic Enablement Layer that incorporates Semantic Web reasoning into SDI. They propose generating profiles of existing OGC services that map transparently to Semantic Web concepts, avoiding the need to build new services from scratch. The study demonstrates how SDI can be combined with linked data to enable richer, interoperable spatial information exchange.

Abstract

Building on abstract reference models, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has established standards for storing, discovering, and processing geographical information. These standards act as a basis for the implementation of specific services and Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). Research on geo-semantics plays an increasing role to support complex queries and retrieval across heterogeneous information sources, as well as for service orchestration, semantic translation, and on-the-fly integration. So far, this research targets individual solutions or focuses on the Semantic Web, leaving the integration into SDI aside. What is missing is a shared and transparent Semantic Enablement Layer for SDI which also integrates reasoning services known from the Semantic Web. Instead of developing new semantically enabled services from scratch, we propose to create profiles of existing services that implement a transparent mapping between the OGC and the Semantic Web world. Finally, we point out how to combine SDI with linked data.