Geo-semantics and Ontology Extended abstract

One of the major problems facing systems for Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications today is the lack of interoperability among the various systems. In order to integrate software applications substantial difficulties can arise in translating information from one application to the other. In this paper we focus on semantic difficulties that arise in this process. Applications may use different terminologies and representations of the same domain. Even when applications use the same terminology, they often associate different semantics with the terms. This prevents from exchanging information among applications. What is needed is some way of explicitly specifying the terminology of the application in an unambiguous fashion. Ontologies can provide such means and it will be the task of this paper to explain what ontologies are and how they can be used to facilitate interoperability between AEC and GI systems.