Linking spatial data: Automated conversion of geo-information models and GML data to RDF

Abstract

Linked data provide an alternative route for the dissemination of spatial information compared to the traditional SOA-based SDI approach. The traditional approach has provided a wealth of standardized and structured location data based on Geography Markup Language (GML), while linked data provides an open mechanism for sharing and combining this data with anything, once the data is available as linked data. The first part of the paper focuses on deriving linked data from GML data. In the second part, we study how more meaningful data, expressed in Resource Description Framework (RDF) can be created from GML, given the underlying information model, by transforming it from Unified Modeling Language (UML) to Web Ontology Language (OWL).