A comparison of different expert relations between LCMGB and LCM2000

1. Introduction Much work integrating geographic data has identified semantic differences between data concepts as one of the key issues that need to be overcome (refs). To address this Comber et al (submitted) have developed and implemented an integration approach based on an expression of Expert opinion on how the data elements or objects in one dataset relate to those of another. Land cover mapping in the UK was used as the example, specifically the 1990 Land Cover of Great Britain and (LCMGB) the UK Land Cover Map 2000 (LCM2000). Relations between them were constructed under a scenario of " idealised semantic relations " and from the characterisations, inconsistency between LCMGB and LCM2000 was identified. Field visits allowed the inconsistency to be parameterised, despite very different ontologies, giving the proportions of inconsistency accounted for by error in LCMGB, error in LCM2000 and land cover change.