Ontology-based integration of topographic data sets

The integration of topographic data sets is defined as the process of establishing relationships between corresponding object instances in different, autonomously produced, topographic data sets of the same geographic space. The problem of integrating topographic data sets is in finding these relationships, considering the differences in content and abstraction. A conceptual framework is developed. Components of this framework are ontologies and sets of surveying rules. New in this approach is the introduction of a reference model. A reference model belongs uniquely to the combination of topographic data sets to be integrated. The framework is tested on two topographic data sets with area instances (polygons) which have crisp and complete boundaries and are not displaced for cartographic reasons. The overall conclusion is that the ontology-based framework is feasible, if (1) there is (at least partial) knowledge of the surveying rules, and (2) the data sets can be synchronized in time. The application of this framework is most suitable for object classes with instances that are easy to identify and have a limited spatial extent (e.g., buildings).