The geoXwalk project

• funded under JISC DNER Development Programme– builds on scoping study – aims to develop a demonstrator gazetteer service

suitable for extension to full service.

• time-frame: 1 June 2002 - 31 May 2003• project partners: EDINA and History Data

Service• aims: to develop a demonstrator suitable for ex

tension to full service

• ‘near-contemporary’ geography focus, linking back into history

• geoXwalk demonstrator due in 2003

JISC Information Environment -geoXwalk as ‘shared service’

Portal

Content providers

End-user

Portal

Broker/Aggregator

Authentication

Authorisation

Collect’n Desc

Service Desc

Resolver

Inst’n Profile

Shared services

Portal

Provision layer

Fusion layer

Presentationlayer

geoXwalk

Reference use

Information server

Information server

Searching

Geoparsing &indexing

The geoXwalkServer

geoXwalk as a digital gazetteer service: use

cases

Uses of geoXwalk Digital Gazetteer Service

1. As ‘shared service’, enabling other information services to support full range of spatial searching (query constraints)• no need to hold all data (at service) to resolve spatial query• uses co-ordinates and (implicit) spatial relationships to

‘cross-walk’ between geographies• machine-to-machine (m2m) interaction to ‘shared service’

2. As reference facility for researchers, libraries & museums 1. including means to resolve variant names etc.

3. As online facility to assist metadata creators and means to semi-automatically georeference existing resources

Supporting cross searching different services

geoXwalkServer

Content Provider C

ContentProvider A

ContentProvider B

Coordinate footprints

Parish names

Place names

Portal service

Post code: L34 0HS?

‘Find resources for this postcode’ (NB postcode often used to geo-reference survey data files)

Knowsley

340900,392300 - 347217, 397660

BX003

Supporting reference: the “where is?” type of question

What is at grid ref. NY 305 573 ?

Where is Aberdour?

What is the largest town in Aberdeenshire?

List me all places ending with ‘kirk’

What parishes fall within the Loch Lomond National Park?

On what river is Dundee situated?

Which Roman roads pass through Scotland?

By what alternative names has Edinburgh been known?

+ research use to resolve variant names etc.

Helping to make simple searching more effective

Find me documents on the 'Liverpool docks’ Search terms: subject = “docks”, place = “liverpool”

Using spatial proximity place search terms become

Liverpool

Bebbington

Birkenhead

Bootle

New Brighton

Seacombe

Seaforth

Waterloo

As online facility to assist metadata creation

• Most of the extant resources in the JISC IE have some form of spatial reference e.g. placename, county name, postcode

• A ‘geoparser’ has been developed which will assist in the semi-automatic indexing of these resources by using the gazetteer as reference.

• The results of the geoparsing can be used to update the documents metadata, making it directly geographically searchable.

Need screen shot of parser here

Developments to Date

1. Creation & Population of gazetteer database with:• Enhanced OS 1:50,000 Gazetteer• Digital boundary data (UKBORDERS)• Additional Place Name Variants (partial for Scotland and

Wales)• Derived multisource data e.g. named woodlands and lakes

based on hybrid 50K gaz and Strategi products2. Development of spatial extensions to database to

support enhanced geographic search capabilities3. Development of middleware to support

machine2machine and interactive searching4. Support for and testing of alternative query protocols -

ADL / OGC5. Development of the geoparser

Ongoing Work and Issues

• Merging geo-data from different scales & from different sources– how to accommodate historical data– positional accuracy & expression of confidence?– how to minimise effort in de-duplication of place(s)?

• places have multiple names, types, and footprints• need to be able to identify duplicate entries for the same place

• Presenting geo-names on different occasions?– many variant ‘proper’ names, what is preferred?

• what is the ‘name authority body’? - none in the Scotland or the UK• preferred name varies with location and use and culture

– there are language and character code set issues– ‘standard’ codes for postal addresses and other geographies

• IPR issues in metadata; and hence terms & conditions of use• Service performance issues and appropriate protocols

Potential Exit Strategies

• R&D focussed:• Exploration of ‘map conflation’ issues - how to identify and

resolve feature duplication• Alternative technological solutions for performance

enhancement, including GRID technologies and/or parallel databases

• Further development and refinement of the geoparser as a project in its own right

• Chesire II and Z39.50 implementation?• Service focussed

• Shared service testbed - ‘Controlled’ roll out of existing demonstrator to limited audience to better gauge usage and performance issues

• Full roll out incorporating R&D phase to pragmatically resolve conflation and performance issues