ABSTRACT
The Semantic Web also provides an explicit and formal description of the data through the use of ontologies. The Semantic Web is founded on what is known as the open world assumption. Geographic Information (GI) is an essential element in data analyses for which location and space are important elements, and it is also used to combine data through location. With a field as diverse as GI, there are no comparable founding principles as there are with the Semantic Web. The need to perform spatial analysis was central to the emergence of a GI community and the creation of Geographic information systems. The Semantic Web is limited to simple spatial analysis plus the ability to perform some topological analysis. On the face of it, this is pretty damning regarding the usefulness of the Semantic Web to the GI Community or anyone wishing to perform some spatial analysis.
