The Geospatial Semantic Web

Abstract

The Semantic Web (SW) and Geospatial Semantic Web (GSW) are considered the next step in the evolution of the Web. For most non-Web specialists, geospatial information professionals, and non-computer-science students these concepts and their impacts on the way we use the Web are not clearly understood. The purpose of this chapter is to provide this broad audience of non-specialists with a basic understanding of: the needs and visions driving the evolution toward the SW and GSW; the principles and technologies involved in their implementation; the state of the art in the efforts to create the GSW; the impacts of the GSW on the way we use the Web to discover, evaluate, and integrate geospatial data and services; and the needs for future research and development to make the GSW a reality. A background on the SW is first presented to serve as a basis for more specific discussions on the GSW.