Ontology-based Semantic Description Model for Discovery and Retrieval of Geo-spatial Information

Finding and accessing suitable geographic information to satisfy various applications in the open and distributed environments of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) is a crucial task. However, because of the semantic heterogeneity in conventional exploitations and descriptions of geographic information, it is difficult to find suitable geographic information which exactly meets the requirements of application. To solve the problems caused by semantic heterogeneity, this paper presents an ontology-based semantic description model which explicitly represents geographic information semantics in abstract and concrete level. It is an integrated model consisting of three parts: Data Profile, Data Content, and Data Binding. Data Profile tells users what the data are about in abstract level. Data Content describes what the data contain in concrete level. Data Binding tells users where and how to access the data. Moreover, this paper puts forward an ontology based approach to enhance the efficiency of discovery and retrieval of geographic information.