顾及时空特征的地理知识图谱构建方法

Spatiotemporal features based geographical knowledge graph construction

地理知识是人类对地理现象或事物空间分布、演变过程和相互作用规律的认知结果.当前大数据环境下的地理信息服务,普遍存在"数据海量、信息爆炸、知识难求"现象.地理知识图谱是一种利用语义网络对地理概念、实体及其相互关系进行形式化描述的知识系统,在地理知识理解、地学问题求解、时空预测决策等方面具有巨大的应用潜力.地理知识除了具有通用知识的内涵和特点之外,还具有特定的时空特征和地学机理特点.因此,地理知识图谱构建和应用既具有一定的通用性,同时具有一定的专业特殊性.本文结合地理知识的时空特征和知识图谱的表达形式,提出了一种顾及时空特征的地理知识图谱构建方法.首先,系统梳理了地理知识图谱构建的基本思路和技术流程,并简要阐述了地理知识获取、地理知识抽象与表达、地理知识组织与管理3个关键环节的主要研究内容及其进展.其次,从地理学回答的基本问题出发,对地理知识的内容特征进行概括和抽象,构建了涵盖"地理概念–地理实体–地理关系"3个层次的地理知识表达模型,用于描述不同粒度地理知识语义单元的基本组成及其逻辑关系.最后,借鉴知识图谱采用的语义网络知识表示方法,提出了基于"过程–关系"的地理知识表示方法.该方法以时间和空间特征为基本条件,以地理实体的状态划分为基础,实现了地理实体演化过程以及复杂地理关系的形式化描述.本文的研究成果有效解决了融合时空间维度的地理知识结构化表达和形式表示问题,为地理知识获取、融合、推理与应用奠定了基础.同时,在地质、环境、气象等地学领域具有一定通用性,对地学知识服务的推进具有重要参考价值.

Geographical knowledge is the cognitive result of human beings on the spatial distribution,evolution,and interaction of geographical phenomena or things.At present,there is a common phenomenon,i.e.,"mass of data,information explosion,and hard to find knowledge"in geographic information services in the context of big data.The geographic knowledge graph(GeoKG)is a knowledge-based system that uses the semantic network to describe geographic concepts,entities,and their relations.It has application prospects in geographic knowledge understanding,geological problem solution,as well as spatiotemporal prediction and decision-making.In addition to the characteristics of general knowledge,geographic knowledge also has specific characteristics of spatiotemporal and geoscience mechanism.Therefore,the construction and applications of Geo KGs have both generality and certain professional specialty.Based on the spatiotemporal characteristics of geographic knowledge and the structure of knowledge graphs,we propose a method for Geo KG construction that considers the characteristics of time and space.Firstly,we describe the basic ideas and technical processes of Geo KG construction and briefly explain the main research contents of geographic knowledge acquisition,geographic knowledge abstraction and representation,as well as geographic knowledge organization and management.Secondly,based on the analysis of basic questions answered by geography,we summarize and abstract geographic knowledge elements and then explore a geographic knowledge representation model with three levels of"geographical concepts-geographic entities-geographical relations"to describe semantic units of geographical knowledge and their logic relations.Finally,the spatiotemporal features are assumed as the basic conditions,and based on the statuses of geographic entities,we propose a formal method based on"process-relation"to represent the evolution process of geographic entities and complex geographic relations.In conclusion,our results can effectively solve the basic problems of Geo KG construction,which are crucial for the acquisition,fusion,reasoning,and application of geographic knowledge.Furthermore,it can be extended in geoscience fields such as geology,environmental science,and meteorology,and has the prospects for the promotion of geoscience knowledge services.