The Austrian Semantic EO Data Cube Infrastructure

Abstract

Big optical Earth observation (EO) data analytics usually start from numerical, sub-symbolic reflectance values that lack inherent semantic information (meaning) and require interpretation. However, interpretation is an ill-posed problem that is difficult for many users to solve. Our semantic EO data cube architecture aims to implement computer vision in EO data cubes as an explainable artificial intelligence approach. Automatic semantic enrichment provides semi-symbolic spectral categories for all observations as an initial interpretation of color information. Users graphically create knowledge-based semantic models in a convergence-of-evidence approach, where color information is modelled a-priori as one property of semantic concepts, such as land cover entities. This differs from other approaches that do not use a-priori knowledge and assume a direct 1:1 relationship between reflectance values and land cover. The semantic models are explainable, transferable, reusable, and users can share them in a knowledgebase. We provide insights into our web-based architecture, called Sen2Cube.at, including semantic enrichment, data models, knowledge engineering, semantic querying, and the graphical user interface. Our implemented prototype uses all Sentinel-2 MSI images covering Austria; however, the approach is transferable to other geographical regions and sensors. We demonstrate that explainable, knowledge-based big EO data analysis is possible via graphical semantic querying in EO data cubes.