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Uncertainty, Semantic

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Encyclopedia of GIS

Synonyms

Ambiguity; Discord or non-specificity in spatial data; Senses, alternative; Meaning, multiple; Folksonomy; Vagueness; Non-specificity; Semantic discord

Definition

When two people look at an instance of the same phenomenon and use a different vocabulary or use the same words in different ways, semantic uncertainty arises. Unfortunately in the storage, manipulation and querying of geographical information this happens very frequently. To organize and assist understanding their environment humans seem to need to identify and name phenomena, often making arbitrary and vague partitions from a continuum of observable properties of the phenomenon. The naming of the phenomenon however enables people to make reference to features and phenomena so that they can communicate ideas, and opinions about those phenomena to others, and to use them as referents in describing locations and landscapes. In the geographical sciences it enables us to map those phenomena by placing lines or text...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Ahlqvist, O.: Using uncertain conceptual spaces to translate between land cover categories. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 19, 831–85 (2005)

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  2. Comber, A., Fisher, P., Wadsworth, R.: Integrating land cover data with different ontologies: identifying change from inconsistency. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 18, 691–708 (2004)

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  3. Fisher, P.F.: Models of Uncertainty in Spatial Data. In: Longley, P., Goodchild, M., Maguire, D., Rhind, D. (eds.) Geographical Information Systems: Principles Techniques Management and Applications, vol. 1, pp. 191–205. Wiley and Sons, New York (1999)

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  4. Fisher, P.F., Wood, J., Cheng, T.: Where is Helvellyn? Multiscale morphometry and the mountains of the English Lake District. Trans. Inst. British Geogr. 29, 106–128 (2004)

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  5. Fisher, P.F., Cheng, T., Wood, J.: Higher order vagueness in geographical information: Empirical geographical population of Type n fuzzy sets. GeoInformatica (in press)

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  6. Fritz, S., See, L.: Comparison of land cover maps using fuzzy agreement. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 19, 787–807 (2005)

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  7. Montello, D.R., Goodchild, M.F., Gottsegen, J., Fohl, P.: Where's downtown?: Behavioural methods for determining referents of vague spatial queries. Spatial Cogni. Comput. 3, 185–204 (2003)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Science, City University, London, UK

    Peter Fisher

Authors
  1. Peter Fisher
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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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Fisher, P. (2008). Uncertainty, Semantic. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_1425

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