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Re: [ontolog-forum] Universal Basic Semantic Structures

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "David C. Hay" <dch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:14:27 -0500
Message-id: <7.0.0.16.2.20120926093402.020b25f8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
In my model of the world (dare I say "upper level ontology"), Enterprise Model Patterns: Describing the World, I have put a lot of thought into the distinctions you describe here. 

In my model, Geographic Location, is an place on Earth (OK, I am a geocentric personality, but the model can be extended skyward if necessary).  The sub-types are Geographic Area, Geographic Point, Geographic Line, and Geographic Solid.  (I only encountered the latter two late in my career, when I worked for a telephone company and an oil company.)

Geographic Area, then, is defined as any bounded 2-dimensional place. (Since we're talking about the Earth, we have to recognize that it's really a spherically 2-dimensional place, but that's in the advanced class...)

Geographic Area has four sub-types:

1.  Geopolitical Area is a Geographic Area whose boundaries are defined by law or treaty.  Thus you have the Geographic Areas that are "California", "Los Angeles County", and the like.  Defining sub-types for Geopolitical Area depends on where you are, but I've come up with at least these:
   a. City
 
  b. Country
 
c. Principle Country Subdivision (which is a really ugly name for "State", or "Province" or (for our UK buddies) "County")  In most real models it turns out to be something like State or Province.
   d. Other Geopolitical Area (subject to negotiation).

2.  Administrative Area is a Geographic Area whose boundaries are defined, typically, by an organization, such as a corporation, but also may be by a government.  Examples of this include "South-central sales area" (defined by a company), "United States Pacific Command (USPACOM)"(defined by the US Department of Defense), and more common, a "Postal Area"  (defined by a national postal authority).

3.  Natural Area is a Geographic Area whose boundaries are defined by natural phenomena, such as lakes or continents.

4. Other Surveyed Area is any Geographic Area (other than 1-3, above) that is measured and whose boundaries are recorded.  This includes the lot my house is on, the area that is the location of the World Trade Center in New York, and so forth.

Geographic Point is just that:  a Geographic Location that is a single point. Usually it's attributes are "longitude", "latitude", and "elevation", but with different systems of geographic reckoning, they could be something else.

Note the this model requires a Geographic Location Relationship, which is the recursive entity type that links one Geographic Location to another.  Sub-types of this include Geographic Definition (linking points to areas, lines and solids), Geographic Structure (that puts "Boston" inside "Massachusetts"), Geographic Overlap (one of which puts the "Navaho Indian Reservation" in "Arizona", and another of which puts the "Navaho Indian Reservation" in New Mexico.  And of course there's Other Geographic Location Relationship, just in case.

All of this is a pretty sophisticated way to represent just places.  The Government that has jurisdiction over a Geopolitical Area is represented by an Organization, linked to the Geopolitical Area via a link class that I have cleverly called Jurisdiction.

Note also that this only covers the place itself.  A "place with a purpose" is variously called a Site, a Facility, or an Address.  This is where one or more Parties (Persons or Organizations) are located to perform one or more Activities, which consume, use, or produce one or more Physical Assets.

Note that Address (for example) has two sub-types:  Physical Address (which has some fairly complex relationships with Geographic Location), and Virtual Address (which nicely covers Telephone Address, E-mail Address, IP Address, and so forth.) 

A Party may be located in one or more Addresses (Physical or Virtual), just as an Address may be the location of one or more Parties. 

Note that a physical building is located in one (or more?) Site (again, for example), but it is not the same as the Site.  It is a Physical Asset

Among the simplest applications we build simply lists names and addresses.  That's an output.  To actually understand what goes inside that "simple" application requires way more sophistication than most people appreciate.  I've spent a fair amount of my career working on this model.

If you've actually read this far, you are a good candidate for buying my book.

Regards

Dave Hay


At 08:52 AM 9/26/2012, you wrote:
On 9/26/2012 8:53 AM, Andries van Renssen wrote:
> The reason why the _expression_ 'I dig a hole in the school district'
> sounds odd is: because that _expression_ is a short-cut for 'I dig
> a hole in the land that has a role as school district'.

I agree with that point.  The notion of role is essential for
distinguishing every subdivision on planet earth.  There is
always a reason or a purpose for the choice.  That is true for
everything from countries and continents to things like farms,
parking lots, and playgrounds.

> But the piece of land that is defined by that boundary is
> nevertheless a physical object, and it has a mass, although
> its value is unknown and not of interest.

Space is physical, but it doesn't have a mass.  An area is
a two-dimensional region.  The political subdivisions only
specify coordinates that determine the area at the surface,
and they are silent about depth or height.

By fiat, the governments of countries lay claim to the mineral
rights beneath their areas.  In principle, they could claim rights
down to the center of the earth.  But in practice, the technology
can only mine a few km. beneath the surface.

When air travel became possible, national governments laid claim
to the air space above them, but smaller governments did not.
But nobody laid claim to the regions above the atmosphere.
Those are more distinctions by fiat.

In summary, I recommend that any ontology for any subdivision
of the earth should specify the surface area S and the intended
role R for that area.

Then anything else that may be associated with the pair (S,R),
such as the land, air, water, people, buildings, governments,
should be specified as the X associated with the area S as
considered in the role R.

John
 
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