From the trenches - API issues in Linked Geo Data

Linking Geospatial Data Workshop

5th - 6th March 2014, Campus London, Shoreditch, UK

 

Joint work with David Evans

 

This paper reports on the experiences of building a linked geo data coordinates translation API and some of the issues that arose in the process.  Beyond the basic capacities of SPARQL, a specialized API was constructed to translate obsolete British Trench Map coordinates from the Great War into modern WGS84 reference systems.  Concerns over current methods of recording geographic information along with accuracy and precision of information are discussed.  Open questions about managing the opportunistic enrichment of geographical instances are discussed as well as the scalability pitfalls therein.

 

Note: The final report on the workshop can be read here.