A knowledge framework for representing, manipulating and reasoning with geographic semantics

This paper describes a programmatic framework for representing, manipulating and reasoning with geographic semantics. The framework enables visualizing knowledge discovery, automating tool selection for user defined geographic problem solving, and evaluating semantic change in knowledge discovery environments. Methods, data and human experts (our resources) are described using ontologies. An entity’s ontology describes, where applicable: uses, inputs, outputs, and semantic changes. These ontological descriptions are manipulated by an expert system to select methods, data and human experts to solve a specific user-defined problem; that is, a semantic description of the problem is compared to the services that…