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Knowledge Representation, Spatial

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of GIS

  • 113 Accesses

Synonyms

GeoOntologies; XML triple

Definition

The formal definition of knowledge can be elusive. We tend to recognize knowledge when we encounter it, but have greater difficulties in defining it.

Knowledge can be distinguished from data and information [1]. Data are raw observations made through sensory or instrumental measurements. Spatial data typically consists of records of where something is located in space. Information is a summarized description of the data. In this transformation, the volume of the data decreases, but its density (value per unit) increases. Spatial information might be a mathematical representation of how an attribute varies over geographic space.

Knowledge is the next step in this chain – it includes a contextfor the ingested information. Knowledge implies that some background information is present, along with some means to build upon that information. Spatial knowledge is the understanding of where and why people or objects are located relative to one...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Ackoff, R.L.: From Data to Wisdom, J. Appl. Syst. Anal. 16, 3–9 (1989)

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  2. Casati, R., Smith, B., Varzi, A.C.: Ontological Tools for Geographic Representation. In: Guarino, N. (ed.) Formal Ontology in Information Systems, pp. 77–85. IOS Press, Amsterdam (1998)

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  3. Smith, B.: Formal ontology, common sense and cognitive science. Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud. 43, 641–667 (1995)

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  4. W3C OWL Ontology Language Reference. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref

  5. Raskin, R.G., Pan, M.J.: Knowledge representation in the Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology (SWEET). Comput. Geosci. 31, 1119–1125 (2005)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboraty, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Robert Raskin

Authors
  1. Robert Raskin
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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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Raskin, R. (2008). Knowledge Representation, Spatial. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_671

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