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Introduction to Geoinformatics: Classes 2016

Outline

This course is focused in the ontologies of the geographic world, that are important to allow the sharing of geographic data among different communities of users. A geo-ontology provides a description of geographical entities, which can be conceptualised in two different views of the world. The field view considers spatial data to be a set of continuous distributions. The object view conceives the world as occupied by discrete, identifiable entities. Objects and fields are not merely located in space, they are tied intrinsically to space. However, to properly represent changes, it is also necessary to describe concepts that convey the dynamics of spatial phenomena. The notions of events and processes are useful to explicitly include the temporal dimension. The lectures present a general overview of the main trends in Geospatial Ontology, discussing the concepts of objects, fields and events for representation of geographical phenomena. The course also highlights the specific area of land use and land cover ontology, an area of considerable importance for geospatial ontology research.

1. Introduction

Lecture: What is Geoinformatics?

2. Vector Geometries and Qualitative Spatial Reasoning

Lecture: Topologies and QSR

Assignment 1: An essay on “Topological Operations on 2D Space for Geographical Applications” (firm deadline: 26 July 2016 - 9h00)

3. Describing socially-agreed entities: Geographical Objects

Lecture: Geographical Objects

Suggested Reading:

Assignment 2: An essay on “Ontology of Geographical Objects” (firm deadline: 27 July 2016 - 9h00)

4. Describing the natural world: Geographical fields

Lecture: Fields

Suggested Reading:

Assignment 3: An essay on “Geographical Fields” (firm deadline: 28 July 2015 - 9h00)

5. Describing changes in our world: Dynamic spatial ontologies

Lecture: Describing change in geographical spaces

Suggested reading:

Assignment 4: An essay on “Space and time in GIS” (firm deadline: 29 July 2016 - 9h00)

6. In Search of a General Theory for Geospatial Ontologies

Lecture: A Theory of Geospatial Ontologies

Suggested reading:

Assignment 5: An essay on “Core Concepts of Geoinformatics” (firm deadline: 14 August 2016 - midnight)