Visualization and Semantic Analysis of Geographic Metadata

The paper presents an approach based on visualization and ontology techniques to analyze large repository of geographic metadata: the aim of the metadata analysis is to support the search for expressive geographic resources. The approach is characterized by a visual reasoning to facilitate the navigation in an unfamiliar space of geographic metadata and a semantic reasoning to support the seeker in the definition of the search criteria. In particular, the analysis of categorical attributes of metadata is considered. Techniques and concepts of information visualization, graphic interaction and ontology are analyzed and exploited: the main principle of the approach is to integrate some of these techniques and concepts to facilitate data searching activity.