Standardization and Research Prof. Dr. Christine Giger Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ...

Standardizationand Research

Prof. Dr. Christine Giger

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

http://www.geoit.ethz.ch/

© Atlas der Schweiz - interaktiv

GeoInformation Technologies

Prof. Dr. Ch. Giger - Standardization and ResearchISO/TC211, 2003-05-21 2

Standards?!



Switzerland?!

CZ = CH ?!



Swiss Newspaper (Tages-Anzeiger 14.8.02)

Slovak Republic!

Hungary?



Access to Geodata!

Examples: Institute for Cartography, ETH Zurich



Information Communities

“An Information Community is a collection of people (e.g. a government agency, a profession, a group of researchers in the same discipline, etc.) who … share a common digital geographic information language and share common spatial feature definitions. This implies a common world view as well as common abstractions, feature representations, and metadata.”

(according to Open GIS Consortium, 1999, www.opengis.org)



Different Semantics

In any application of spatial information:

There is a demand for integrating spatial data from different sources, which belong to different information communities.

Usually this integration is non-trivial because of the different semantics used for the spatial data in different information communities.



Example: Urban Planning

• We need different features and attributes from different data sources, amongst others: Citizens’ and politicians’ opinions on street network Basic spatial data from official survey Possible paths for traffic from private supplier for car

navigation data Information on lane surface properties from road

maintenance



Example: spatial features and attributes

• The data on streets should be characterized by: Purpose and notion Geometry Accuracy and co-ordinate system



Example : What is a street?

Information Community

Citizens Official survey

Navigation Road maintenance

Purpose/

Notion

Traffic, noise

Part of a tessellation, consists of parcels

Part of a path, which has to be calculated

3D object with different surface features and infrastructure attributes

Geometry Line on a map

Polygon, specifying an area

Connected line segments, topology explicitly stored

Linear object, street axis

Accuracy/

Co-ordinate system

Sufficient for recognizing the street in reality /

adequate

1 to 10 cm /

local, official co-ordinate system (x,y)

10 to 30 meters /

local, official co-ordinate system (x,y)

~ 10 cm to 50 cm / linear co-ordinate system (u,v)



Problem

• There is not ONE geometry or description for a spatial object

• How to describe semantics of spatial objects in a formal way?

• How to provide services for data transfer, data integration, quality checks, etc.?

Approaches:• CH: INTERLIS• ISO/TC211: conceptual schema language• Science: Ontology



What is an Ontology?

• In Philosophy: A science or study of being: specifically, a branch of

metaphysics relating to the nature and relations of being; a particular system according to which problems of the nature of being are investigated

• In Artificial Intelligence / Computer Science: A theory concerning the kinds of entities and specifically the

kinds of abstract entities that are to be admitted to a language system.

OR simply:A specification of a conceptualization.



Research topics in Geoinformation Science

• … which are related to ISO/TC211 standards use of Ontologies for spatial data processing Image semantics Interoperable Services Location-based Services Handling of spatio-temporal data 3-D Information systems Data Usability Ontology and Metadata Spatial Data Infrastructures …



(GI-) Standards



Benefits for Research

• According to the Swiss experience(mainly during the INTERLIS development),standards: provide a reliable basis prevent from re-inventing the wheel offer interesting research topics (during development)

may offer an opportunity to disseminate know-how and research results



Benefits for Standardization

• Today‘s research results (in GI Science and Technology) will influence the market in 5-7 years

• Students who use standards in projects, thesis, and courses: are well-educated experts who appreciate the standards‘

usability help to disseminate the standards and enforce their market

presence

• Research institutions provide neutral experts to test, evaluate, and improve existing standards



Conclusion

• Keep close contact between

Standardization and Research!

Standardization and Research Prof. Dr. Christine Giger Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ...

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