Mygeo-explorer: A semantic search tool for querying geospatial information

We propose a semantic search approach for geospatial information systems to resolve the issue of semantic heterogeneity in metadata catalogues. Using the Malaysian geospatial data infrastructure service portal, MyGDI Explorer, as a comparative case study, a semantic search tool developed in this work is based on the model-view-controller (MVC) approach, which comprises three major components, an ontology component modelled using the Malaysian Geospatial Standard (MS 1759) as a domain, a java-based middleware component using Apache-Jena API and a query-based semantic search engine developed in Java EE. In this paper, we present MyGeo-Explorer, a web application coupled with a semantic search engine for exploring geospatial information and illustrate the use of the tool with some common usage scenarios. We show how ontology-based semantic search provides more relevant search results as compared to traditional keyword search and helps to deal with the problems of semantic heterogeneity inherent in keywords definition.