1. Spatial Identifier Reference
Framework (SIRF)
Realising the potential of SDI using spatial identifiers
to link multiple information systems.
International Cartographic Conference, Dresden
Rob Atkinson | Paul Box | Laura Kostanski
August 2013
GOVERNMENT AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES THEME
2. Today’s Presentation
• The Vision
• The Problem
• A Spatial Identifier Reference Framework (SIRF)
• Mechanisms
• Status
3. Vision Versions….
• “Evidence based decision making”
• Discovering and integrating data from multiple sources
• because problems are multidimensional
• geographic basis of issues and actions
• geography is shared
• Spatial Data Infrastructures
• manage spatial data once, and share it
• efficiency and efficacy
• Semantic Web
• machine interpretation
4. The Linked Data Vision
Data
about the
world
access rights
The Web
Magic
Object ID (URL)
context
application
5. Spatial identifiers describe ‘the Somewhere’
Geospatial information
Statistical information
(Implicitly geospatial)
Spatial
identifiers
BPS-ID
GER ‘08
Tpop’10
003
Bureau of Stats - 003
Name
Nusa Tenggara Barat
111.08
1,318,840
005
Nusa Tenggara Timur
112.09
335,805
Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)
• Fundamental component of spatial datasets
• Used to reference data
5
UNSDI Spatial Identifier Reference Framework | Paul Box
West Nusa Tenggara
7. One real world feature - multiple representations
Geospatial information
Gazetteer ID - 002234
Spatial
Identifier
Reference
Framework
Statistical information
(Implicitly geospatial)
UNSTATS
Name
GRP’08 $
IND03
NTB
8,080
IND05
NTT
4,769
BPS-ID
GER ‘08
Tpop’10
003
Bureau of Stats - 003
Name
Nusa Tenggara Barat
111.08
1,318,840
005
Nusa Tenggara Timur
112.09
335,805
Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)
Multiple - names, identifiers, geometries, versions
7
UNSDI Spatial Identifier Reference Framework | Paul Box
8. Gazetteer – a special case of Spatial Identifier
GAZETTEER
ID, placename(s), feature type, location
• Official list of names
• Related to mapping process
(toponymic)
• Used for map lookup
Melbourne – locality – Victorian Gazetteer –Official
Names are ambiguous
One name – many places
One place - many names
• Australia, Australie, أستراليا
• Wollongong, ‘the gong’
• Sydney, City of Sydney
Melbourne – municipal council boundaries – official
9. Barriers to use of common spatial
references
Spatial feature dataset
discovery
relevance
access rights
access mechanism
format
semantics
identifier stability
change
citation
CSIRO. UN Gazetteer - Common Semantic Framework for the UNSDI
application
10. Is any platform going to work?
• A single “big bucket” doesn’t work (well enough)
•
•
•
•
•
•
• Authority vs. coverage
Spatial Data Infrastructures are slow to emerge and hard to use
Informal data and Big Data increasingly important
Legacy systems using incompatible identifiers
Specialised systems needing specific views
Semantic Web unproven and unfriendly to existing systems
Linked Data has too much variability
11. Spatial Identifier Reference Framework
• Respect multiple views, authorities, usages
• Better description of existing systems and
resources
• Semantic Web and Linked Data for better
discovery
• Provenance and authority linked to SDI where
available
• Small set of extensions to various standards to
support interoperability of spatial identifiers
12. Linked Data Web
Reports
Application
http://id.unsdis/id/catchment/567
http://id.unsdis/id/catchment/567
representations
Basic properties
Identifier Architecture
provenance
URL: spatial data access
URL: spatial data access
URL: observation data archive access
URL: observation data archive access
Data Marts
Transactions
URL: live data access
URL: live data access
Services
URL: virtual data product
URL: virtual data product
Observation Archive
(Data Warehouse)
Services
WFS
WCS
Spatial
databases
Sensor Web (image OGC 2006)
Computational
Models
Spatial Data Infrastructure
13. Status
• Testing with Australian and Indonesian gazetteers and
administrative boundaries, hydrological catchments, Open Street
Map data
• Ways to describe resources
• Working services (machine interfaces)
• (Very crude) HTML applications implementation
• Testing federation across multiple nodes
• Documentation and software being prepared for open release
CSIRO. UNSDI Gazetteer for Social Protection in Indonesia
17. Thank you
For more information
Rob.atkinson@csiro.au
GOVERNMENT AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES THEME
Hinweis der Redaktion
Forms of country names range from those in use by the countries themselves (endonyms) to externally used alternatives (exonyms), to various common abbreviations (e.g. USA) and codes (such as those in ISO 3166). Indexes are produced by a diversity of communities including United Nations agencies, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs- such as humanitarian relief or environmental assessment groups) and commercial enterprises (postal agencies, distribution companies).
We can realise this vision – a spatial object can be cross-referenced to a concept and linked to related information, but this requires “reasoning” over some structured metadata.
LOD looks at the web as a mechanism, with self-describing resources. Context provides resolvable references. Semantic Web tech provides ability to find related resources for each reference (object ID)
On he web you may not know the data product...
Turn to a special kind of identifier set
One name – Melbourne locality municipal council boundary
, Melbs in US and Canada , Sri Lanka
One place many names
Endonym / exonym
offical and vernacular
variants
Until now the preference of many agencies has been to homogenize geospatial information for ‘ease of use’ purposes- either through aggregating and de-duplicating existing SIDs or by disregarding competing information. SIRF is a system being developed by CSIRO using Linked Data mechanisms to support interoperability between heterogeneous geospatial information datasets and systems. SIRF harmonises disparate SIRDs through cross-walking and data linking methods, the benefits of which are outlined in detail by the authors. The framework system brings to the geospatial data management world, for the first time, the capability to streamline information integration processes whilst acknowledging the reality of multiple, competing SIRDs.
Until now the preference of many agencies has been to homogenize geospatial information for ‘ease of use’ purposes- either through aggregating and de-duplicating existing SIDs or by disregarding competing information. SIRF is a system being developed by CSIRO using Linked Data mechanisms to support interoperability between heterogeneous geospatial information datasets and systems. SIRF harmonises disparate SIRDs through cross-walking and data linking methods, the benefits of which are outlined in detail by the authors. The framework system brings to the geospatial data management world, for the first time, the capability to streamline information integration processes whilst acknowledging the reality of multiple, competing SIRDs.
Statistical data: existing data references alternative datasets. New data can use participatory mapping sources if desired
Reports: can use any source, SIRF provides consistent behavour for any citation
Applications: can see all sources via search and use cross-reference services to find alternatives, and statistical data that uses these (information network not shown directly)
Screen snapshot of links for a given object, with a couple of examples of views
1st link is actually this view available in machine readable form so applications can use this data...
Last link links to Feature Type Catalog
