13:15-13:30 : Registration, welcome coffee

Introduction, B Bucher, E Tiainen, T Ellett

This seminar aims at studying the usage of indirect spatial referencing systems – place names and other core data – for data linking. Whereas direct referencing refers to traditional geocoding, i.e directly attaching coordinates to an entity; indirect spatial referencing is achieved by associating an entity with a spatial entity through reference of a URI only. In some contexts, this methodology has several pros like human readability of location, single storage of authoritative data and more consistent and accurate resources. For example, place names are one of the most ancient and widely used frameworks to locate as well as to interconnect a wide range of information assets, like databases, structured web content, pdf reports, regulations and maps. The scientific and technological evolutions in information infrastructure, information retrieval, as well as in knowledge representation and machine learning have offered even more opportunities in using commonly used identifiers of spatial entities, like place names but also administrative units, buildings with identifiers, as a key component to locate and interconnect pieces of information.

Gazetteers for linking text to space: experiences with contrasting corpora, Elise Acheson, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Gazetteers play a central role in many text-to-space workflows, including for toponym recognition (identifying possible toponyms within texts) and toponym resolution (resolving toponyms to a unique identifier and potentially linking to spatial representations). In this talk we will discuss requirements for gazetteers used in Geographical Information Retrieval (GIR), specifically in the context of georeferencing a range of corpora. Our first use case will highlight requirements and challenges for the detailed annotation and spatial grounding of a geographically- focused corpus containing many fine-grained toponyms, such as documents describing Swiss landscapes. A second use case will look at the process of linking scientific articles to space, and thus dealing with a more global, yet more common, set of locations. Finally we will examine the difficult task of linking social media content to space, which presents a range of challenges including global locations, varying granularities, and very limited context. In each case, gazetteer coverage, completeness, and organization affect the ease of implementing solutions and the success that they can achieve.

Designing data projects at Foxcub, Julien Homo, Kévin Darty, Foxcub, France

Foxcub is a young data agency accompanying organizations to use state of the art data solutions, including to enhance their interconnections.

Registering 50 years of french administrative documentation on geography : first results and pending questions, Florence Blanc, La Dila, France
Several usages of administrative documentation call for advanced registration of this documentation on space and on time. This registration can only be achieved by collaboration between several domains like administrative documentation, space and time modelling, automated document reading and machine learning.

Assessing the importance of named places: benefits and difficulties, Dominique Laurent, IGN France

Named places and their geographical names are used for two main purposes: as search criteria (e.g. in gazetter, GeoPortals) and for mapping. The first use case requires data completeness (users willing to find the named place associated with any geographical name) whereas the second use case require selection criteria (as it is frequently impossible to display all names and named places in the limited extent of a paper sheet or of a map screen). In a first step, mapping agencies have selected relevant named places for maps at some given scale(s), following a cartographic viewpoint. However, this selection is very specific, both to a territory (and so difficult to harmonise across Europe) and to a scale or limited set of scales. In a second step, one of the objectives of the INSPIRE Directive is to make existing data interoperable. However, regarding theme Geographical Names, the data specifications have just included attributes about the least and more detailed viewing resolution, without any guidelines about how to interpret these subjective cartographic notions. This is why, in a third step, the UN-GGIM: Europe Working Group on core data is proposing a more objective approach, by encouraging the estimation of the importance of the named place in the real-world, following a topographic, database viewpoint. The “Recommendation for content – Spatial Core data theme GeographicalNames” document is promoting the capture of quantifiable criteria measuring the importance of the named place in real world, such as its area (by capturing “true” geometry) or its population (for populated places). However, there are some remaining issues and questions to be addressed, possibly by the research community. Capturing the “true” geometry of named places is both a challenge (how to do it in a reliable way whereas many named places, such as mountain chains or seas, have a fuzzy geometry?) and an opportunity (how much it could improve the linking by indirect spatial referencing?).

The other potential research topic is related to the objective selection criteria: in addition to area and population, other criteria (e.g. touristic interest) have to be identified and methods of assessment have to be found.

Discussion on data linking by place names

– what are the new requirements for data linking by place names for our societies,
– what does it imply in terms of data structure, services and organization?
– how can EuroSDR contribute in engaging scientific communities and developers on pending issues and new challenges based on ‘real problems illustrated with data’.