Definitions of Natural-Language Spatial Relations: Combining Topology and Directions

Because SQL for querying data from spatial databa se s is ineffective, the query based on natural or visual language becomes an attra ctive research field gradually. However, how to define and represent natural lan guages related to spatial data are still gigantic problems. Because existing mod els of direction relations can’t describe by use of some common concepts. First of all, detailed direction relations are proposed to describe the directions re lated to the interior of spatial objects, such as "east part of a region","ea st boundary of a region", and so on. Secondly, by integrating the detailed dire ctions with exterior direction relations and topological relations, several NLSR s are defined, such as "a road goes across the east part of a lake", "a river goes along the east boundary of a province", etc. Finally, based on the NLSRs abovementioned, a natural spatial query language (NSQL) is formed to retrieve da ta from spatial databases.