The semantic Web offers new opportunities for information processes. This book is devoted to the core issue of data integration at the semantic level and demonstrates the applicability of the techniques developed to spatio-temporal representation and reasoning and geographic information systems. Preceded by a motivating introduction and an overview of the state of the art in the field of information integration, fundamental problems of terminological representation, terminological reasoning, and semantic translation are treated in detail. The theoretical results and techniques developed are applied to intelligent conceptual and spatio-temporal queries of heterogeneous geographic information systems. The Semantic Web o?ers new options for information processes. Dr. Visser is dealing with twocore issuesin this area:the integrationofdata onthe sem- tic level and the problem of spatio-temporalrepresentation and reasoning. He tackles existing research problems within the ?eld of geographic information systems(GIS), thesolutionsofwhichareessentialfor animprovedfunction- ity of applicationsthat makeuse of the Semantic Web (e.g., for heterogeneous digitalmaps).Inaddition,theyareoffundamentalsigni?canceforinformation sciences as such. In an introductory overview of this ?eld of research, he motivates the - cessity for formal metadata for unstructured information in the World Wide Web. Without metadata, an e?cient search on a semantic level will turn out to be impossible, above all if it is not only applied to a terminological level but also to spatial-temporal knowledge. In this context, the task of infor- tionintegrationisdividedinto syntactic,structural,andsemanticintegration, the last class by far the most di?cult, above all with respect to contextual semantic heterogeneities. A current overview of the state of the art in the ?eld of information in- gration follows. Emphasis is put particularly on the representation of spatial and temporal aspects including the corresponding inference mechanisms, and also the special requirements on the Open GIS Consortium The Semantic Web o?ers new options for information processes. Dr. Visser is dealing with twocore issuesin this the integrationofdata onthe sem- tic level and the problem of spatio-temporalrepresentation and reasoning. He tackles existing research problems within the ?eld of geographic information systems(GIS), thesolutionsofwhichareessentialfor animprovedfunction- ity of applicationsthat makeuse of the Semantic Web (e.g., for heterogeneous digitalmaps).Inaddition, theyareoffundamentalsigni?canceforinformation sciences as such. In an introductory overview of this ?eld of research, he motivates the - cessity for formal metadata for unstructured information in the World Wide Web. Without metadata, an e?cient search on a semantic level will turn out to be impossible, above all if it is not only applied to a terminological level but also to spatial-temporal knowledge. In this context, the task of infor- tionintegrationisdividedinto syntactic, structural, andsemanticintegration, the last class by far the most di?cult, above all with respect to contextual semantic heterogeneities. A current overview of the state of the art in the ?eld of information in- gration follows. Emphasis is put particularly on the representation of spatial and temporal aspects including the corresponding inference mechanisms, and also the special requirements on the Open GIS Consortium. Front Matter....Pages - Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction....Pages 3-11 Related Work....Pages 13-34 Front Matter....Pages 35-35 General Approach of Buster....Pages 37-51 Terminological Representation and Reasoning, Semantic Translation....Pages 53-73 Spatial Representation and Reasoning....Pages 75-91 Temporal Representation and Reasoning....Pages 93-121 Front Matter....Pages 123-123 Implementation Issues and System Demonstration....Pages 125-136 Conclusion and Future Work....Pages 137-140 References....Pages 141-150 Back Matter....Pages - "The Semantic Web offers new opportunities for information processes. This book is devoted to the core issue of data integration at the semantic level and demonstrates the applicability of the techniques developed to spatio-temporal representation and reasoning, and geographic information systems."--Jacket Ubbo Visser. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [141]-150).
