Research On Ontology Representation And Modeling Of Spatial Topological Relation

Spatial relation representation and reasoning are the main contents of spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning has a widely application perspectives in Geography Information System (GIS) and related areas, so it becomes an important leading project of GIS elementary theory and related subjects. Research on spatial relation representation mainly includes spatial topological relation, spatial cardinal direction relation and spatial distance relation.Within a comprehensive survey both domestically and abroad, although a lot of works have been done and some accomplishments have been achieved in GIS spatial relation representation area, on the whole, it still stays at the exploring stage, and many problems need to be solved.Existing spatial relation representation methods are mainly suit for one spatial relation, such as only considering topological relation or cardinal direction relation. The representations of topological relation, cardinal direction relation and distance relation are separate, and there is no unitive formalization representation model. However, in practice problems we usually deal with several spatial relations, thus several separated spatial relation representation methods have to be used at the same time. It is hard to construct a unitive and integrated spatial relation representation and reasoning formalization system for computers, which leads to lots of inconveniences and difficulties in spatial data modeling and query language construction. Therefore, it needs to explore a formalization frame and reasoning model which could integrate topological relation, cardinal direction relation and distance relation.The concept of ontology originated from philosophy, describing essence of things. In recent years, ontology has been widely accepted by computer areas, using for knowledge representation, knowledge sharing and reuse. It is superiors in knowledge conception cognition, formalization representation, coding, etc. Ontology will play an important role in spatial relation representation and reasoning theory, knowledge acquiring, knowledge system designing, system document constitution and knowledge interchange domains.The contents of this paper are part of the project "Research on Spatial Relation Knowledge Representation and Reasoning based on Ontology" (The project of National Science Foundation of China). It is put forward to use the concepts and methods of ontology to resolve relative problems of spatial relation representation and reasoning. In this paper, we focus on the establishment of spatial topological relation representation based on ontology, so as to make foundation of a unitive formalization representation and reasoning model based on ontology which could integrate topological relation, cardinal direction relation and distance relation.The main work in this paper is listed as follows:1. Collected a lot of information both domestically and abroad, narrated basic ontology theory, including basic concepts, methods, languages and tools of ontology.2. Narrated some existing representations of spatial topological relation, and put forward a spatial topological relation widening representation method of three basic spatial entities, namely point, line and area, based on point set on the foundation of SRC-Ontology (Spatial Relations Core Ontology).3. Using protege tool to construct an ontology knowledge representation model for spatial topological relation based on SRC-Ontology, which provided a unitive representation frame for cardinal direction relation and distance relation.4. Using java program to realize forty-three spatial topological relation determinations in six types, as well as erodibility and dilatability arithmetic operators imported in the representation of spatial relation. The main innovation work in this paper is putting forward a spatial topological relation widening representation method of three basic spatial entities, namely point, line and area, based on point set on the foundation of SRC-Ontology, and using protege tool to construct an ontology knowledge representation model for spatial topological relation based on SRC-Ontology, which has been realized in codes. This representation method is not only a widening for SRC-Ontology's eight topological relation representation method, but also more suits for the requirement of practical spatial data type. It provides more explicit terminologies, frameworks and rules for spatial relation ontology modeling, and also provides the theory foundation for practical program designing of spatial topological relation determinations. In addition, the method can be used in representation and modeling for cardinal direction relation and distance relation as reference.