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Retrieval Algorithms, Spatial

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of GIS

  • 130 Accesses

Synonyms

Geographic information retrieval; Information retrieval; Toponym; Footprint; Synonymy; Ambiguity; Gazeteer; Triage, query; Relevance, spatial; Relevance, textual

Definition

Before describing means of adapting text search engines to deal with location, it is important to both define what is meant by spatial retrieval and further to establish how often users actually need access to search systems which provide a spatial component. Purves and Jones define spatial retrieval as [16]

“…the provision of facilities to retrieve and relevance rank documents or other resources from an unstructured or partially structured collection on the basis of queries specifying both theme and geographic scope.”

Historical Background

In determining user needs for such location-based search, one can start by examining the range of existing search engines with explicit support for spatial search. Probably the most obvious starting point for examples of such systems is to examine the major Web search...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It should be noted that the exact means by which Web search engines provide their services are closely guarded secrets and the methods used by them change continuously. Therefore, any statement about how such search engines work (from any source, not just this text) should be taken to be little more that informed speculation that might go out of date at any time.

  2. 2.

    Care needs to be taken to ensure that such keywords do not clash with actual words found in documents.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Mark Sanderson

Authors
  1. Mark Sanderson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Shashi Shekhar (McKnight Distinguished University Professor) (McKnight Distinguished University Professor)

  2. Management Science and Information Systems Department, Rutgers Business School Newark and New Brunswick Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Hui Xiong (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Sanderson, M. (2008). Retrieval Algorithms, Spatial. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_1125

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