Representing Geospatial Knowledge in Narratives

• DOI: 10.1145/3703918
• Publication Date: 2024-11-12T14:12:51Z
• Authors: Valentina Bartalesi; Nicolò Pratelli
• Keywords: Semantic Web, Knowledge Graph, CRMgeo, GeoSPARQL, Geospatial Narratives, Digital Humanities; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology

This article explores the representation of geospatial knowledge within narratives through a Semantic Web approach. We introduce the NOnt

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Space (NOnt

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S) model, an extension of the CIDOC CRM-based Narrative Ontology, which allows the representation of narratives and their geospatial aspects. By leveraging standards such as CRMgeo and GeoSPARQL, NOnt

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S ensures systematic and interoperable geospatial representation in narratives, enabling geospatial queries on knowledge graphs. We present an assessment of NOnt

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S utilizing data from the H2020 MOVING European project (2021–2024), which collected knowledge about European mountain value chains intended as Cultural Heritage. We have represented this knowledge as geospatial narratives using NOnt

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S. GeoSPARQL queries and semantic reasoning applied to the created KG reveal the ontology ability to infer new geospatial knowledge. Our work contributes to the ongoing efforts in the Semantic Web community to integrate and represent geospatial information within narratives, promoting collaboration and interoperability across various scientific domains.