Open Geospatial Consortium

Publication Date: 2015-10-01

Approval Date: 2015-08-03

Posted Date: 2015-06-23

Reference number of this document: OGC 15-066r1

Reference URL for this document: http://www.opengis.net/doc/PER/t11-linked-data-nhd

Category: Public Engineering Report

Editor(s): Gobe Hobona;Roger Brackin

Testbed-11 Use of Semantic Linked Data with RDF for

National Map NHD and Gazetteer Data Engineering Report

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

To obtain additional rights of use, visit http://www.opengeospatial.org/legal/.

Warning

This document is not an OGC Standard. This document is an OGC Public Engineering Report
created as a deliverable in an OGC Interoperability Initiative and is not an official position of the
OGC membership. It is distributed for review and comment. It is subject to change without notice
and may not be referred to as an OGC Standard. Further, any OGC Engineering Report should not
be referenced as required or mandatory technology in procurements.

Document type: OGC® Engineering Report

Document subtype: NA
Document stage: Approved for public release
Document language: English
OGC 15-066r1

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ii Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

Contents Page

1   Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1  
1.1   Scope ....................................................................................................................... 1  
1.2   Background ............................................................................................................. 2  
1.2.1   Previous Work .................................................................................................. 2  
1.2.2   Related Work .................................................................................................... 3  
1.3   Document contributor contact points ...................................................................... 4  
1.4   Future work ............................................................................................................. 5  
1.5   Forward ................................................................................................................... 5  
2   References ..................................................................................................................... 5  
3   Terms and definitions ................................................................................................... 6  
4   Conventions .................................................................................................................. 6  
4.1   Abbreviated terms ................................................................................................... 6  
5   Methodology ................................................................................................................. 7  
6   National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) ......................................................................... 8  
6.1.1   Common identifier ............................................................................................ 9  
6.1.2   Reachcode ......................................................................................................... 9  
7   Principles of Linked Data ............................................................................................. 9  
8   Use Cases Adopted ..................................................................................................... 10  
8.1   Find a Placename, Return Related Flowlines and/or Gauges ............................... 10  
8.2   Find a Flow Line as a Place, Return Related Other Place Names ........................ 13  
9   Testbed Architecture ................................................................................................... 14  
10   Implementation ......................................................................................................... 15  
10.1   Encoding the Linked Data .................................................................................. 15  
10.1.1   Turtle Language ............................................................................................ 16  
10.1.2   RDF/XML ..................................................................................................... 16  
10.1.3   JSON-LD ...................................................................................................... 17  
10.2   Identification of Data Sources ............................................................................ 17  
10.3   Configure Individual Components ...................................................................... 21  
10.3.1   CSW 3.0 ........................................................................................................ 21  
10.3.2   RDF-Generating WPS .................................................................................. 27  
10.3.3   Generating RDF with ETL tools ................................................................... 29  
10.3.4   WFS-G Semantic Mediator........................................................................... 30  
10.3.5   GeoSPARQL Servers.................................................................................... 32  
10.3.6   Client Component ......................................................................................... 37  
11   Discussion ................................................................................................................. 37  
12   Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 39  
12.1   Recommendations ............................................................................................... 39  

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12.2   Revision history .................................................................................................. 40  

Figures Page

Figure 1. The Linked Data Cloud (source: http://lod-cloud.net/) .............................................. 2  

Figure 2. Sequence diagram for the first use case ..................................................................... 12  
Figure 3. Sequence diagram for the second use case ................................................................. 14  
Figure 4. Architecture for CCI Linked Data components ........................................................ 15  
Figure 5. Screenshot of the client component ............................................................................ 37  

Tables Page

Figure 1. The Linked Data Cloud (source: http://lod-cloud.net/) .............................................. 2  

Figure 2. Sequence diagram for the first use case ..................................................................... 12  
Figure 3. Sequence diagram for the second use case ................................................................. 14  
Figure 4. Architecture for CCI Linked Data components ........................................................ 15  
Figure 5. Screenshot of the client component ............................................................................ 37  

iv Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

Abstract
Over the past few years there has been an increase in the number, size and complexity of
databases across government sectors. This has undoubtedly created challenges relating to
the discovery and access of information and services on multiple databases across static
and deployed networks. Linked Data has been suggested as a method able to tackle those
challenges. The aim of the Hydrographic Linked Data activity in the OGC Testbed 11
was to advance the use of Linked Data for hydrographic data by building on the
achievements of the previous testbeds and to improve the understanding of how to better
build relations between hydro features and non-hydro features (e.g., stream gauge
measurement/location vs bridge or other built features upstream or downstream). This
aspect of the testbed focused on the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) which is
published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). This OGC Engineering
Report provides guidelines on the publication of hydrographic and hydrological data
serialized as Resource Description Framework (RDF) using Linked Data principles and
technologies based on OGC standards. The document also presents the experimentation
conducted by Testbed 11 in order to identify those guidelines.

Business Value
This OGC Engineering Report describes approaches that could improve semantic
interoperability by enhancing the ability of data consumers to discover data that is
associated with other data, thereby providing insight beyond that offered by any single
dataset. The content of the engineering report is important to achieving interoperability in
location-based technologies because it offers an approach that could add value to existing
and future geospatial data products.

Keywords
ogcdocs, ogc documents, testbed-11, hydrography, hydrology, semantic web, linked data,
rdf

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. v

OGC® Engineering Report OGC 15-066r1

Testbed-11 Use of Semantic Linked Data with RDF for

National Map NHD and Gazetteer Data Engineering Report

1 Introduction

1.1 Scope

Over the past few years there has been an increase in the number, size and complexity of
databases across government sectors. This has undoubtedly created challenges relating to
the discovery and access of information and services on multiple databases across static
and deployed networks. Linked Data has been suggested as a method able to tackle those
challenges.

Linked Data presents a method of publishing structured data so that it can be interlinked
and become more practical through use of semantic queries [7]. The World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) also defines Linked Data as “a way to create a network of standards-
based machine interpretable data across different documents and Web sites” [6]. Linked
Data can therefore be considered a specialization of the Semantic Web. Linked Data
applies standard Semantic Web technologies such as the Resource Description
Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). However, instead of using
them to serve web pages for human readers, it uses them to share information in a way
that can be processed by machines. This method has established a capability within the
World Wide Web in which not just hyperlinked documents are accessible to the world,
but also primary data can be connected and queried.

The aim of the Hydrographic Linked Data aspect of OGC Testbed-11 was to advance the
use of Linked Data for Hydrographic Data by building on the achievements of the
previous testbeds and improving the understanding of how to better build relations
between hydro features and non-hydro features (e.g., stream gauge measurement/location
vs bridge or other built features upstream or downstream). Such advancement could help
with addressing several challenges relating to the enduring need to associate data with
other data in order to derive useful information and infer new insight. This OGC
Engineering Report provides guidelines on the publication of hydrographic and
hydrological data using Linked Data principles applied to technologies based on OGC
standards. The document also presents the experimentation conducted by the testbed.

This Engineering Report is applicable to initiatives involving hydrographic data

production, hydrological science and Linked Data (e.g. data.gov and data.gov.uk).

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1.2 Background

Since its conception by Tim Berners-Lee in 2006, the vision of Linked Data has
established a sizable community behind it. Figure 1 represents the different initiatives
providing documents into the global Linked Data space, which shall hereinafter be
referred to in this report as the Linked Data Cloud. A more legible figure can be found at
http://lod-cloud.net/

Figure 1. The Linked Data Cloud (source: http://lod-cloud.net/)

Several of the organizations that have published Linked Data are government
departments within the United States (US) and in Europe. For example, the data.gov.uk
program has published over 5400 datasets from government departments across the
United Kingdom, and the data.gov site has made 6.4 billion triples of US government
data available for exploitation [8].
1.2.1 Previous Work

Linked Data has been seen as a potential enabler of cross community interoperability for
several years and previous OGC testbeds have provided some insight into how such
enablement could be achieved. This section presents summaries of the work conducted in
the most previous testbed.

2 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

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 OGC 15-066r1

The OGC Web Services Testbed 10 (OWS-10) included multiple research activities
related to Linked Data and the Semantic Web [4]. The first activity involved the
investigation of the potential for a Virtual Global Gazetteer (VGG) that integrated two
gazetteers: the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) gazetteer and the
GEOnet Names Server (GNS) gazetteer of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
(NGA). The VGG provided the capability to link types of places offered by one gazetteer
with place types offered by another. Semantic mappings used by the VGG were served
by a SPARQL Server, whereas the instances of places were provided by web services
based on the Gazetteer profile of the Web Feature Service (WFS-G) specification. The
semantic mappings allowed the VGG to offer semantic mediation between the USGS and
NGA WFS-G services.

A second activity was concerned with ontology engineering involving an examination of

ontologies in the context of OGC data modeling, handling, and organization [2]. The
testbed defined a set of ontologies implementing solid theoretical foundations and
semantics. Another aspect of the ontology engineering involved an examination of the
definition of core ontologies for representing incident information within the emergency
and disaster management domain.

A third testbed activity addressed ontology mapping between hydrology feature models
[5]. The activity had a goal of advancing interoperability of approaches for sharing
geospatial data within hydro communities and to also advance semantic mediation
approaches for data discovery, access, and use of heterogeneous hydro data models (and
heterogeneous hydro metadata models).
1.2.2 Related Work

Several initiatives in the hydrology community have also been exploring approaches for
publishing hydro data as Linked Data. An example of such an initiative is by the Centre
of Excellence in Geographic Information Science (CEGIS) at the USGS which undertook
a pilot study to make USGS data available to the Semantic Web and the Linked Open
Data Community1. CEGIS converted USGS data to RDF and Geography Markup
Language (GML) for a group of test areas. The conversion processes adopted by CEGIS
involved extracting all data for eight layers of The National Map for the test areas, and
converting the point vector data to RDF whilst maintaining the coordinates in GML. The
triples (formed of a subject, predicate and object) were constructed from the entities
defined in the National Map. An example of an NHD entity is a flowline, which can be
used to represent a stream reach that provides connections within a hydrographic
network. In the case of an NHD flowline the subject is the feature identifier derived from
the reach code, the predicate is the particular characteristic of the flowline (e.g. its
length), and the objects can be literal values or references to other features. The CEGIS
approach modelled the geometry objects as containing GML coordinates of the flowline.

The approach adopted by CEGIS has the following advantages:

1 http://www.semantic-web-journal.net/sites/default/files/swj180.pdf

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OGC 15-066r1

• Allows most (if not all) of the information offered by NHD data to be preserved
by the generated RDF.

• Results in a graph structure that can be traversed between different NHD feature
types, through use of the same property to represent unique identifiers across
different feature types.

• Allows locations to be expressed using the complete expressivity of GML.

• Allows for spatial queries using GeoSPARQL.

OGC Testbed 11 offered an opportunity to partially align the approach adopted by

CEGIS with other information models adopted in the hydro community; for example, the
OGC Hy_Features model2. In addition to such alignment, the testbed provided an
opportunity to examine the potential for publishing NHD data as Linked Data consistent
with guidelines adopted in the wider Linked Data community.

1.3 Document contributor contact points

All questions regarding this document should be directed to the editor or the contributors:

Name Organization
Gobe Hobona PhD. Envitia Ltd.
Roger Brackin MSc. Envitia Ltd.
Stefano Cavazzi PhD. Envitia Ltd.
Barbara Klis Envitia Ltd.
Stephane Fellah Image Matters
Josh Lieberman PhD. OGC/Tumbling Walls
Dean Hintz Safe Software
Buck Shou Feng Chia University (GIS FCU)
Chen-Yu (How) Hao Feng Chia University (GIS FCU)
Eugene Yu PhD. George Mason University (GMU)
Lingjun Kang MS. George Mason University (GMU)
David Blodgett US Geological Survey
David Wesloh National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

2 http://www.opengis.net/doc/DP/hy-features

4 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

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 OGC 15-066r1

1.4 Future work

Improvements in this document are not planned.

1.5 Forward

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be
the subject of patent rights. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) shall not be held
responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Recipients of this document are requested to submit, with their comments, notification of
any relevant patent claims or other intellectual property rights of which they may be
aware that might be infringed by any implementation of the standard set forth in this
document, and to provide supporting documentation.

2 References

The following documents are referenced in this document. For dated references,
subsequent amendments to, or revisions of, any of these publications do not apply. For
undated references, the latest edition of the normative document referred to applies.

1. OGC 06-121r3, OpenGIS® Web Services Common Standard

2. OGC 14-049, OGC® Testbed 10 Cross Community Interoperability (CCI)

Ontology Engineering Report

3. OGC 12-103r3, OWS-9 Semantic Mediation Engineering Report

4. OGC 14-029r2, OWS-10 Gazetteer Engineering Report

5. OGC 14-048. Testbed 10 Cross Community Interoperability (CCI) Hydro Model

Interoperability Engineering Report

6. W3C. JSON-LD 1.0, last visited 20-04-2015, available from

http://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld/

7. Berners-Lee T., (2009) Linked Data, last visited 20-04-2015, available from
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

8. Hart, G., Dolbear, C. (2013) Linked Data : A Geographic Perspective, CRC Press

9. Howard M., Payne S., Sunderland R., (2010) Technical Guidance for the
INSPIRE Schema Transformation Network Service available from
http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/Network_Services/JRC_INSPIRE-
TransformService_TG_v3-0.pdf

10. US EPA. NHDPlus Version 2: User Guide (Data Model Version 2.1), 2015

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OGC 15-066r1

3 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this report, the definitions specified in Clause 4 of the OWS Common
Implementation Specification [OGC 06-121r3] and in OpenGIS® Abstract Specification
shall apply. In addition, the following terms and definitions apply.

3.1
feature
representation of some real world object or phenomenon

3.2
interoperability
capability to communicate, execute programs or transfer data among various functional
units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique
characteristics of those units
3.3
metadata
data about data

3.4
model
abstraction of some aspects of a universe of discourse
3.5
ontology
a formal specification of concrete or abstract things, and the relationships among them, in
a prescribed domain of knowledge [ISO/IEC 19763]

3.6
semantic interoperability
the aspect of interoperability that assures that the content is understood in the same way
in both systems, including by those humans interacting with the systems in a given
context

3.7
syntactic interoperability
the aspect of interoperability that assures that there is a technical connection, i.e. that the
data can be transferred between systems

4 Conventions

4.1 Abbreviated terms

CCI Cross Community Interoperability

CSW Catalogue Service for the Web

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 OGC 15-066r1

ER Engineering Report

GML Geography Markup Language

HTML HyperText Markup Language

JSON-LD JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data

NGA National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

NHD National Hydrographic Dataset

NSG National System for Geospatial Intelligence

OGC Open Geospatial Consortium

OWL Web Ontology Language

RDF Resource Description Framework

SDI Spatial Data Infrastructure

TNM The National Map

URI Unique Resource Identifier

URL Uniform Resource Locator

URL Uniform Resource Name

USGS US Geological Survey

WFS Web Feature Service

WKT Well Known Text

WMS Web Map Service

5 Methodology

To achieve the research aims outlined above, the experimentation conducted in the
testbed followed the following process:

1. Identify data and services to support the use case

2. Design ontology, reusing where possible standard or commonly used predicates

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3. Configure individual components to support, convert or generate the Linked Data

4. Integrate the individual components into the testbed demonstrator

5. Assess interoperability and identify lessons to learn

6 National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)

The NHD is a digital spatial data product that offers information about naturally
occurring and manmade water-bodies, water flowpaths and related features. The NHD
offers a variety of information about such features, including classification, delineation,
geographic name, position, and other characteristics. Also provided is a "reach code"
through which other information can be related to the NHD.
Several different applications exploit NHD data, for example:
• Map making.
• Geocoding and linking through the reach code.
• Modeling the flow of water.
• Providing a reference of unique identifiers for features found in the NHD.
The NHD adopts an object oriented model within which entities are modelled as features.
Features, within the NHD, include naturally occurring and manmade water-bodies, water
flowpaths and related features. Feature types such as “stream/river”, “canal/ditch” and
“lake/pond” are defined through grouping and classification of features that share specific
characteristics. The features are represented geometrically as points, lines and polygons
following a process of delineation according to the following rules:
1. The delineated feature must be contiguous with related features.

2. The delineated feature must have consistent dimensionality; that is, it must be
consistently one point, one or more lines, or one or more areas.

3. The delineated feature can have only one feature type and must have the same set
of characteristics and choices of values throughout its extent.

Unique identifiers are used extensively within the NHD to reference instances of feature
types. Whereas some software applications have been implemented with built-in logic for
associating NHD feature types, a platform-independent approach offers the potential for
interoperability between different applications.
The following sections describe the unique identifiers that the NHD offers for cross
referencing.

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6.1.1 Common identifier

Each feature is uniquely identified through a 10-digit integer known as the “common
identifier”. The common identifier is held in an attribute named “COMID” in the datasets
used in the testbed. A common identifier number is permanently assigned to a feature
and is thus retired when that feature is deleted.
6.1.2 Reachcode

In hydrology, a ‘reach’ is a continuous, unbroken stretch or expanse of surface water. The

NHD expands this definition to define a reach “as a significant segment of surface water
that has similar hydrologic characteristics, such as a stretch of stream/river between two
confluences, or a lake/pond”3. Reaches are assigned unique 14-digit numeric labels
known as a “reach code”. The first 8 digits of a reach code indicate the hydrologic unit
for the sub-basin in which the reach exists, whereas the last 6 digits are assigned
arbitrarily and sequentially among the reaches. A reach code is permanently assigned to a
reach and is retired when that reach is deleted. Reach code can be effective in associating
observation data to other information. For example, observations can be referenced to an
entire reach by tagging the observations with the reach code, or to sections of a transport,
coastline, or shoreline reach. Reach codes are held in attributes named "REACHCODE"
in datasets used in the testbed.

7 Principles of Linked Data

Whereas the primary units of the World Wide Web can be considered to be hypertext
documents encoded in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and linked by untyped
hyperlinks, the primary units of the Linked Data Cloud are documents holding data in
RDF format and linked through typed statements. The resultant structure has in some
cases been referred to as the Web of Data.

The RDF data model is designed to support the representation of information that is
integrated from multiple sources, represented using different schemas, and is
heterogeneously structured. Encoding data in RDF allows Linked Data applications to
reason about the meaning of the data and make inferences based on the assertions
specified in the data (and other data linked to it). This ability is not supported by
traditional web documents encoded in HTML, which only allow applications to interpret
the formatting specified by the documents. Such reasoning is made possible by the
standardized encoding of concepts and the relationships between them in such a way that
makes it possible for different applications to adopt a consistent understanding of the
meaning of the concepts. Such formal specifications of concepts and the relationships
between them are commonly referred to as ontologies, and are typically encoded in
OWL.

3 http://nhd.usgs.gov/chapter1/chp1_data_users_guide.pdf

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OWL is considered the standard language for defining and instantiating ontologies on the
World Wide Web. An ontology specified in OWL may include descriptions of classes,
properties, instances and the relationships between them. The cross referencing of some
instances based on a common vocabulary of class and properties results in a graph that
allows applications to traverse through from one dataset to another, provided the datasets
are linked. The linking of classes, properties and their instances in the Linked Data Cloud
(and the ontologies that support the Cloud) relies on unique resource identifiers (URI).

A URI is a string of characters assigned to a resource and no other resource such that the
referencing of that string of characters unambiguously refers to that resource. There are
generally considered to be two types of URI, namely uniform resource names (URN) and
Uniform Resource Locators (URL). A URN is generally used to identify a resource (such
as a coordinate system), whereas a URL provides an address through which a resource
can be accessed on the World Wide Web. An example of a URN is
“urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG:6.9:4326” and an example of a URL is
http://spatialreference.org/ref/epsg/wgs-84/ . URLs are therefore often referred to as
HTTP URI to distinguish them from URNs. The act of retrieving data using an HTTP
URI is known as dereferencing that URI.

Neither OWL nor RDF mandates the use of HTTP URIs over URN. Moreover, neither of
these standards requires that it be possible to deference a URI. As the ability to
dereference an HTTP URI is fundamental to being able to traverse the Linked Data
Cloud, the following guidelines have been proposed by Tim Berners-Lee (2006):

1. Use URIs as names for things

2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names

3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information, using standards like
RDF and SPARQL

4. Include links to other related URIs, so that they can be discovered, thus expanding
the concept of the Web of Data

These four points are considered to be the “Linked Data Principles” and provide
fundamental instructions for publishing and linking data using the infrastructure of the
Web while maintaining its architecture and standards at the same time.

8 Use Cases Adopted

8.1 Find a Placename, Return Related Flowlines and/or Gauges

A user would like to find all flowlines and gauges that pass through a specific place. In a
flood scenario, this use case would be applied in the strengthening of flood defenses
along streams that are likely to affect towns at risk.

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Actors:

• Client.

• WFS-G Semantic Mediator.

• USGS NHD WFS.

• NationalMap Geonames WFS.

• CSW 3.0.

• GeoSPARQL Server.

Basic Steps

1. The client retrieves metadata from the CSW 3.0.

2. The client sends a request to a WFS-G semantic mediator.

3. WFS-G semantic mediator retrieves mappings from the GeoSPARQL Server.

4. WFS-G semantic mediator applies mappings to the request from the Client.

5. WFS-G semantic mediator retrieves places from the NationalMap Geonames

WFS.

6. WFS-G semantic mediator returns the places to the client.

7. Client retrieves flowlines from the GeoSPARQL Server.

8. Client retrieves stream gauge locations from the GeoSPARQL Server.

9. Client links received features and presents output.

An illustration of the use case using a sequence diagram to describe the interactions
between the components is presented in Figure 2.

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 11

OGC 15-066r1

sd Find a Placename, Return Related Flow lines and/or Gauges

User
GIS.FCU Client GMU CSW 3.0 Env itia WFS-G Env itia USGS Image Matters GIS.FCU WPS USGS NHD WFS
Semantic GeoSPARQL NationalMap GeoSPARQL
Mediator Serv er Geonames WFS Serv er

GetRecords()

:MD_Metadata

GetFeature()

SPARQL
SELECT()

:Mappings

«SPARQL»
GetFeature()

:Places
«GML»
:Places
«GML»

SPARQL SELECT(Flowlines)

Execute()

GetFeature()

:Flowlines
«GML»
:Flowlines
«RDF Turtle»
:Flowlines
«JSON-LD»

SPARQL SELECT(Stream gauges)

Execute()

GetFeature()

:Stream gauges
«GML»
:Stream gauges

«RDF Turtle»
:Stream gauges
«JSON-LD»

Figure 2. Sequence diagram for the first use case

12 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

8.2 Find a Flow Line as a Place, Return Related Other Place Names

A user would like to find all places along a specific flowline. In a flood scenario, this use
case could be applied in initial response efforts such as identifying the towns that are
likely to be affected by a stream that is about to breach its banks.

Actors:

• Client.

• WFS-G Semantic Mediator.

• USGS NHD WFS.

• NationalMap Geonames WFS.

• CSW 3.0.

• GeoSPARQL Server.

Basic Steps

1. The client retrieves metadata from the CSW3.0.

2. The client sends a request for flowlines to the USGS NHD WFS.

3. The client retrieves flowlines from NHD WFS.

4. The client selects a stream of interest.

5. The client sends a request with the bounds of the selected stream to the WFS-G
semantic mediator.

6. WFS-G semantic mediator retrieves mappings from the GeoSPARQL Server.

7. WFS-G semantic mediator applies mappings to the request from the Client.

8. WFS-G semantic mediator retrieves places from the NationalMap WFS.

9. WFS-G semantic mediator returns the places to the client.

10. The client retrieves places from the GeoSPARQL Server.

11. The client presents the output.

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 13

OGC 15-066r1

An illustration of the use case using a sequence diagram to describe the interactions
between the components is presented in Figure 3.
sd Find a Flow Line as a Place, Return Related Other Place Names

User
GIS.FCU Client GMU CSW 3.0 Env itia WFS-G Env itia USGS Image Matters USGS NHD WFS
Semantic GeoSPARQL NationalMap GeoSPARQL
Mediator Serv er Geonames WFS Serv er

GetRecords()

:MD_Metadata

GetFeature()

:Flowlines
«GML»
GetFeature()

SPARQL
SELECT()

:Mappings

«SPARQL»
GetFeature()

:Places
«GML»
:Places
«GML»
SPARQL SELECT()

:Places

Figure 3. Sequence diagram for the second use case

9 Testbed Architecture

The architecture adopted by the Cross Community Interoperability (CCI) thread for
Linked Data is shown in Figure 4. The GIS-FCU client application retrieves metadata
from the GMU CSW. The metadata is structured according to the ISO 19115 and 19119
international standards. The client application obtains places from the Envitia WFS-G4
Semantic Mediator, which in turn retrieves places from external WFS including the

4 Web Feature Service-Gazetteer

14 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

USGS WFS. The WFS-G makes use of semantic mappings obtained from the Envitia
GeoSPARQL Server. The WFS-G returns GML-encoded places that reference their
RDF-encoded equivalent places from the Image Matters GeoSPARQL Server (derived
from the USGS gazetteer). The places returned by the WFS-G also reference
hydrographic features from the Envitia GeoSPARQL Server. Within this architecture the
GIS-FCU WPS and Safe Software Workbench are used for generating RDF-encoded
data.

Figure 4. Architecture for CCI Linked Data components

10 Implementation

This section describes the implementation of the architecture, the issues encountered and
lessons identified.

10.1 Encoding the Linked Data

The RDF model encodes data in the form of subject, predicate, object triples. The subject
can be a URI or a blank node. The predicate is always a URI. The object can be a URI or
a blank node. RDF triples can be grouped into two principal types, namely literal triples
and link triples. Literal triples have, as a target object, a literal value such as a string,
number, date or a Well Known Text (WKT) geometry. Link triples describe the

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OGC 15-066r1

relationship between two resources. Link triples can be further categorized according to
whether they associate resources within the same namespace (e.g. within the USGS
namespace) or whether they associate resources in different namespaces (e.g. between
namespaces of the USGS and NGA).

The predicate describes how the subject and object are related and is also represented by
a URI. Predicate URIs come from vocabularies associated with particular purposes or
communities of interest. Collections of predicate URIs can therefore be used to structure
information relating to a particular domain. The links represented as predicate URIs can
indicate relationship, identity and vocabulary links. Relationship links associate related
entities such as a ‘dam’ on a ‘river’ that passes through a ‘place’. Identity links associate
objects with their names or labels, for example, some rivers might have separate local and
official names. Vocabulary links offer descriptions of data to make data self-descriptive.

The Web of data, formed of Linked Data, can be seen as an additional layer that is
interlaced with the classic document Web and has many of the same characteristics:

• Linked Data is universal and can include any type of data.

• Anyone can publish Linked Data.

• There are no constraints on data publishers on choice of vocabularies for

describing data.

• Entities are connected by RDF links, constructing a global data graph that spreads
data sources.

• Linkage between entities enables the discovery of new data resources.

There are various languages for encoding RDF triples by. The following sub-sections
discuss the three languages used in the testbed for encoding RDF.
10.1.1 Turtle Language5

The Turtle language (TTL) allows RDF graphs to be written down in a compact natural
text form within documents. The approach uses abbreviations for common usage patterns
and datatypes, thereby making the documentation of RDF graphs more efficient than the
XML-based alternative.
10.1.2 RDF/XML

The RDF/XML syntax is an application schema for writing RDF graphs in XML, using
XML constructs — element names, attribute names, element contents and attribute

5 http://www.w3.org/TeamSubmission/turtle/

16 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

values. RDF/XML uses namespaces in XML to abbreviate URIs, however documents

written in RDF/XML are often much larger than those written in other languages such as
Turtle.
10.1.3 JSON-LD

JSON-LD is a syntax for serializing Linked Data into JavaScript Object Notation
(JSON). It is mainly designed for use within web-based environments, particularly where
JavaScript is supported by default. Although JSON-LD is more compact than RDF/XML,
its efficiency is comparable to that offered by TTL. In contrast to TTL however, JSON-
LD offers the benefit of built-in support by JSON parsers that are already available on
popular web browsers.

10.2 Identification of Data Sources

A set of data sources in the form of feature collections served through WFS were
provided by the USGS. After a review of the feature types available, the testbed selected
feature types for stream gauges, flowlines and catchments for implementing the use cases
described above.

Table 1 presents attributes of the stream gage feature type as exported from the WFS
DescribeFeatureType response6 and defined in the NHDPlus User Guide7.
Table 1. NHDPlus stream gage attributes offered by the USGS WFS

Attributes   Type   Definition   Comment  

the_geom   geometry   Location  of  the  NHD  feature   Used  to  generate  
GeoSPARQL  as  WKT  
comid   Integer   Common  identifier  of  the   Value  across  all  
NHD  feature   features  was  Nil  so  
was  not  used  as  an  
identifier  
eventdate   dateTime   Date  event  was  created   Generated  as  a  
literal  
reachcode   string   Reachcode  on  which   Used  to  generate  a  
Stream  Gage  is  located.   URI  to  reference  the  
Converted  to  a  resource  URI   related  Reach  
reachsmdat   dateTime   Reach  Version  Date  -­‐  Not   Generated  as  a  
populated   literal  

6 http://cida-
test.er.usgs.gov/nhdplus/geoserver/ows?request=DescribeFeatureType&service=WFS&TypeName=nhdPlus:gage

7 http://www.fws.gov/r5gomp/gom/nhd-gom/NHDPLUS_UserGuide.pdf

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OGC 15-066r1

reachresol   string   Reach  Resolution,  always   Generated  as  a  

“Medium”   literal  
featurecom   integer   Reserved  for  future  use   Generated  as  a  
literal  
featurecla   integer   Reserved  for  future  use   Generated  as  a  
literal  
source_ori   string   Originator  of  Event   Generated  as  a  
literal  
source_dat   string   Description  of  point  entity   Generated  as  a  
literal  
source_fea   string   Gage  Id/USGS  Site  Number   Generated  as  a  
literal  
featuredet   string   URL  where  detailed  gage   Generated  as  a  
data  can  be  found   literal  
(NWISWEB)  
measure   double   Measure  along  reach  where   Generated  as  a  
Stream  Gage  is  located  in   literal  
percent  
from  downstream  end  
offset   double   Always  zero   Generated  as  a  
literal  
eventtype   string   Fixed  value  of   Generated  as  a  
“StreamGage”   literal  
flcomid   integer   Internal  identifier   Generated  as  a  
literal  
agency_cd   string   Gov.  Agency  responsible  for   Generated  as  a  
the  streamgage   literal  
station_nm   string   Station  name   Generated  as  a  
literal  
state_cd   string   2  digit  state  FIPS  code  of   Generated  as  a  
the  WSC  maintaining  the   literal  
gage.  Puerto  Rico  is  listed  as  
a  state  
state   string   2  char.  state  postal  abrev.   Generated  as  a  
of  the  WSC  maintaining  the   literal  
gage.  Puerto  Rico  is  listed  as  
a  state.  
dasqmile   double   Reported  drainage  area  in   Generated  as  a  
square  miles.  Stations  with     literal  
DA  of  -­‐999999  means  there  
is  no  reported  DA  in  NWIS.  

18 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

lonsite   double   Longitude  of  the   Generated  as  a  

streamgage  (site)  location  -­‐   literal  
gage  house  in  decimal  
degrees,  NAD83  
latsite   double   Latitude  of  the  streamgage   Generated  as  a  
(site)  location    -­‐  gage  house   literal  
in  decimal  degrees,  NAD83  

Table 2 presents attributes of the flowline feature type as exported from the WFS
DescribeFeatureType response8 and defined in the NHDPlus User Guide.
Table 2. NHDPlus flowline attributes offered by the USGS WFS

Attribute   Type   Definition   Comment  

the_geom   geometry   Location  of  the  flowline   Used  to  generate  
GeoSPARQL  as  
WKT  
comid   integer   Common  identifier  of  the  NHD   Used  to  create  a  
feature   URI  to  reference  
the  Flowline  
fdate   dateTime   Feature  Currency  Date   Generated  as  a  
literal  
resolution   string   Always  “Medium”   Generated  as  a  
literal  
gnis_id   string   Geographic  Names  Information   Generated  as  a  
System  ID  for  the  value  in   literal  
GNIS_Name  
gnis_name   string   Feature  Name  from  the   Generated  as  a  
Geographic  Names  Information   literal  
System  
lengthkm   double   Feature  length  in  kilometers   Generated  as  a  
literal  
reachcode   string   Reach  Code  assigned  to  feature   Used  to  generate  a  
URI  to  reference  
the  related  Reach  
flowdir   string   Flow  direction  is  “WithDigitized”   Generated  as  a  
or  “Uninitialized”   literal  
wbareacomi   integer   ComID  of  an  NHD  polygonal   Generated  as  a  
water  feature  through  which  an   literal  

8 http://cida-
test.er.usgs.gov/nhdplus/geoserver/ows?request=DescribeFeatureType&service=WFS&TypeName=nhdPlus:nhdflowli
ne_nonnetwork

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 19

OGC 15-066r1

NHD  “Artificial  Path”  flowline  

flows  
ftype   string   NHD  Feature  Type   Generated  as  a  
literal  
fcode   integer   Numeric  codes  for  various   Generated  as  a  
feature  attributes  in  the   literal  
NHDFCode  
lookup  table  
shape_leng   double   Feature  length     Generated  as  a  
literal  
enabled   string   Always  “True”   Generated  as  a  
literal  

Table 2 presents attributes of the catchment feature type exported from the WFS
DescribeFeatureType response9 and defined in the NHDPlus User Guide.
Table 3. NHDPlus catchment attributes offered by the USGS WFS

Attribute   Type   Definition   Comment  

the_geom   geometry   Location  of  the   Used  to  generate  
catchment   GeoSPARQL  as  WKT  
gridcode   integer   a  unique   Generated  as  a  
identification  number   literal  
for  each  catchment  
featureid   integer   Common  Identifier  of   Used  to  generate  a  
the  Feature   URI  for  the  feature  
sourcefc   string    Source  Feature  Class   Generated  as  a  
literal  
areasqkm   double   Feature  area  in   Generated  as  a  
square  kilometers   literal  
shape_leng   double   Feature  length     Generated  as  a  
literal  
shape_area   double   Feature  area     Generated  as  a  
literal  

9 http://cida-
test.er.usgs.gov/nhdplus/geoserver/ows?request=DescribeFeatureType&service=WFS&TypeName=nhdPlus:catchment

20 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

10.3 Configure Individual Components

10.3.1 CSW 3.0

The testbed participants deployed a component based on version 3.0 of the Catalogue
Service for the Web (CSW) standard. The CSW 3.0 component provided the ability to
publish and search collections of metadata records for geospatial data, services and other
resources. Metadata describe resource characteristics in way that enables CSW to query
and present the characteristics for evaluation and discovery by both humans and
applications.

The CSW 3.0 instance deployed in the testbed offered a variety search interfaces. An
example request using a typical key value pair (KVP) request is:

http://www.exampleserver.com/cat3/csw?service=CSW&version=3.0.0&request=GetRec
ords&resultType=results&ElementSetName=full&outputSchema=http://www.opengis.ne
t/cat/csw/2.0.2&typenames=csw:Record&outputFormat=application/xml&startPosition=
1&maxRecords=10&constraintlanguage=CQL_TEXT&constraint=csw%3AAnyText%2
0Like%20%27%25water%25%27

The response to this query from the CSW 3.0 is shown in the following listing:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<csw:GetRecordsResponse xmlns:csw="http://www.opengis.net/cat/csw/3.0"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
xmlns:rim="urn:oasis:names:tc:ebxml-regrep:xsd:rim:3.0"
xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
xmlns:ows="http://www.opengis.net/ows"
xmlns:apiso="http://www.opengis.net/cat/csw/apiso/1.0"
xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:gco="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gco"
xmlns:gmd="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd"
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:srv="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/srv"
xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
xmlns:sitemap="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:wrs="http://www.opengis.net/cat/wrs/1.0" version="2.0.2"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/cat/csw/3.0
../../../csw/3.0/CSW30-discovery.xsd">
<csw:SearchStatus timestamp="2015-05-09T04:10:02Z"/>
<csw:SearchResults numberOfRecordsReturned="1" nextRecord="0"
numberOfRecordsMatched="1"
recordSchema="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd"
elementSet="brief">
<gmd:MD_Metadata
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd
http://schemas.opengis.net/csw/2.0.2/profiles/apiso/1.0.0/apiso.xsd">

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 21

OGC 15-066r1

<gmd:fileIdentifier>
<gco:CharacterString>22610244-2374-4447-9705-
465268442787</gco:CharacterString>
</gmd:fileIdentifier>
<gmd:hierarchyLevel>
<gmd:MD_ScopeCode
codeList="http://.../gmxCodelists.xml#MD_ScopeCode"
codeSpace="ISOTC211/19115"
codeListValue="dataset">dataset</gmd:MD_ScopeCode>
</gmd:hierarchyLevel>
<gmd:identificationInfo>
<gmd:MD_DataIdentification id="22610244-2374-4447-9705-
465268442787">
<gmd:citation>
<gmd:CI_Citation>
<gmd:title>
<gco:CharacterString>NHDPlus Stream Gages
</gco:CharacterString>
</gmd:title>
<gmd:date>
<gmd:CI_Date>
<gmd:date>
<gco:Date>2015-04-12</gco:Date>
</gmd:date>
<gmd:dateType>
<gmd:CI_DateTypeCode
codeList="http://../gmxCodelists.xml#CI_DateTypeCode"
codeSpace="ISOTC211/19115"
codeListValue="creation">creation</gmd:CI_DateTypeCode>
</gmd:dateType>
</gmd:CI_Date>
</gmd:date>
</gmd:CI_Citation>
</gmd:citation>
<gmd:extent>
<gmd:EX_Extent>
<gmd:geographicElement>
<gmd:EX_GeographicBoundingBox>
<gmd:westBoundLongitude>
<gco:Decimal>158.22</gco:Decimal>
</gmd:westBoundLongitude>
<gmd:eastBoundLongitude>
<gco:Decimal>158.22</gco:Decimal>
</gmd:eastBoundLongitude>
<gmd:southBoundLatitude>
<gco:Decimal>6.96</gco:Decimal>
</gmd:southBoundLatitude>
<gmd:northBoundLatitude>
<gco:Decimal>6.96</gco:Decimal>
</gmd:northBoundLatitude>
</gmd:EX_GeographicBoundingBox>
</gmd:geographicElement>
</gmd:EX_Extent>
</gmd:extent>
</gmd:MD_DataIdentification>

22 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

</gmd:identificationInfo>
</gmd:MD_Metadata>
</csw:SearchResults>
</csw:GetRecordsResponse>

The example response in the listing shows the returned ISO 19115 metadata encoded in
XML based on ISO 19139 — arguably the most widely implemented geospatial metadata
specification. The increasing popularity of JSON, however, has raised the need to explore
the possibility of encoding metadata based on ISO 19115 but serialized in JSON. The
testbed configured the deployed CSW 3.0 to also offer JSON encoded metadata through
an OpenSearch interface.. An example query and response are shown below:

http://www.exampleserver.com/cat3/opensearch?service=CSW&version=3.0.0&maxRec
ords=10&q=ortho&startPosition=1&bbox=-180,-90,180,90&time=2000-01-
01T00:00:00Z/2014-12-31T23:59:59Z&outputFormat=application/json

{  
       "attributes":  {  
               "version":  "2.0.2",    
               "xsi:schemaLocation":  "http://www.opengis.net/cat/csw/2.0.2    
http://schemas.opengis.net/csw/2.0.2/CSW-­‐discovery.xsd"  
       },    
       "tag":  "csw:GetRecordsResponse",    
       "children":  [  
               {  
                       "attributes":  {  
                               "timestamp":  "2015-­‐05-­‐09T04:23:45Z"  
                       },    
                       "tag":  "csw:SearchStatus"  
               },    
               {  
                       "attributes":  {  
                               "numberOfRecordsMatched":  "2",    
                               "nextRecord":  "0",    
                               "numberOfRecordsReturned":  "2",    
                               "elementSet":  "full",    
                               "recordSchema":  "http://www.opengis.net/cat/csw/2.0.2"  
                       },    
                       "tag":  "csw:SearchResults",    
                       "children":  [  
                               {  
                                       "tag":  "csw:Record",    
                                       "children":  [  
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "5f37e0f8-­‐4fb1-­‐4637-­‐b959-­‐b415058bdb68",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:identifier"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Ortho",    

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 23

OGC 15-066r1

                                                       "tag":  "dc:title"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "dataset",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:type"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Orthoimagery",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "http://www.ypaat.gr",    
                                                       "tag":  "dct:references",    
                                                       "attributes":  {  
                                                               "scheme":  "None"  
                                                       }  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "2009-­‐10-­‐07",    
                                                       "tag":  "dct:modified"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Ortho",    
                                                       "tag":  "dct:abstract"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "2009-­‐10-­‐07",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:date"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "otherRestrictions",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:rights"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "attributes":  {  
                                                               "crs":  "urn:x-­‐ogc:def:crs:EPSG:6.11:4326",    
                                                               "dimensions":  "2"  
                                                       },    
                                                       "tag":  "ows:BoundingBox",    
                                                       "children":  [  
                                                               {  
                                                                       "text":  "39.71  21.53",    
                                                                       "tag":  "ows:LowerCorner"  
                                                               },    
                                                               {  
                                                                       "text":  "39.74  21.58",    
                                                                       "tag":  "ows:UpperCorner"  
                                                               }  
                                                       ]  
                                               }  
                                       ]  
                               },    
                               {  

24 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

                                       "tag":  "csw:Record",    
                                       "children":  [  
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "NS06agg",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:identifier"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "PacIOOS  Nearshore  Sensor  06:  Micronesia",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:title"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "dataset",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:type"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Oceans  >  Ocean  Chemistry  >  Chlorophyll",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Oceans  >  Ocean  Optics  >  Turbidity",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Oceans  >  Ocean  Temperature  >  Water  
Temperature",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Oceans  >  Salinity/Density  >  
Conductivity",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Oceans  >  Salinity/Density  >  Salinity",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "Oceans  >  Water  Quality",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },      
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "sea_water_salinity",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "depth",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "latitude",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "longitude",    

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 25

OGC 15-066r1

                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "time",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:subject"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "http://  
oos.soest.hawaii.edu/thredds/nss.html",    
                                                       "tag":  "dct:references",    
                                                       "attributes":  {  
                                                               "scheme":  "None"  
                                                       }  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "tag":  "dc:relation"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "2014-­‐04-­‐16",    
                                                       "tag":  "dct:modified"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "The  nearshore  sensors  are  part  of  the  
PacIOOS.",    
                                                       "tag":  "dct:abstract"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "text":  "2014-­‐04-­‐16",    
                                                       "tag":  "dc:date"  
                                               },    
                                               {  
                                                       "attributes":  {  
                                                               "crs":  "urn:x-­‐ogc:def:crs:EPSG:6.11:4326",    
                                                               "dimensions":  "2"  
                                                       },    
                                                       "tag":  "ows:BoundingBox",    
                                                       "children":  [  
                                                               {  
                                                                       "text":  "6.96  158.22",    
                                                                       "tag":  "ows:LowerCorner"  
                                                               },    
                                                               {  
                                                                       "text":  "6.96  158.22",    
                                                                       "tag":  "ows:UpperCorner"  
                                                               }  
                                                       ]  
                                               }  
                                       ]  
                               }  
                       ]  
               }  
       ]  

26 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

10.3.2 RDF-Generating WPS

The testbed explored different approaches for generating Linked Data. One approach
used a Web Processing Service (WPS) to convert NHD data into RDF. The WPS
approach has the benefit of web access through its provision of a service endpoint for
client applications to remotely bind to. Another approach, discussed in Section 10.3.3,
used an Extraction Transform Load (ETL) tool to convert NHD data into RDF. The OGC
WPS Interface Standard provides a standard interface for publishing simple or complex
computational processes via web services. WPS is designed to be location aware through
its support for GML-encoded inputs. WPS is also designed to be self-descriptive through
its offering of process descriptions and capabilities metadata. In order to produce RDF-
encoded data from both the TNM and NHD datasets, a WPS was provided with the
following process description:
<wps:ProcessDescriptions xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:wps="http://www.opengis.net/wps/1.0.0"
xmlns:ows="http://www.opengis.net/ows/1.1"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xml:lang="en"
service="WPS" version="1.0.0"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wps/1.0.0
http://schemas.opengis.net/wps/1.0.0/wpsAll.xsd">
<ProcessDescription wps:processVersion="1.0.0"
statusSupported="true" storeSupported="true">
<ows:Identifier>gs:Tnm2Rdf</ows:Identifier>
<ows:Title>TNM to RDF</ows:Title>
<ows:Abstract>Get TNM with RDF format</ows:Abstract>
<DataInputs>
<Input maxOccurs="1" minOccurs="1">
<ows:Identifier>bbox</ows:Identifier>
<ows:Title>bbox</ows:Title>
<ows:Abstract>bounding box</ows:Abstract>
<LiteralData>
<ows:AnyValue/>
</LiteralData>
</Input>
<Input maxOccurs="1" minOccurs="1">
<ows:Identifier>dataName</ows:Identifier>
<ows:Title>dataName</ows:Title>
<ows:Abstract>data name of tnm</ows:Abstract>
<LiteralData>
<ows:AllowedValues>
<ows:Value>Flowline</ows:Value>
</ows:AllowedValues>
</LiteralData>
</Input>
</DataInputs>

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 27

OGC 15-066r1

<ProcessOutputs>
<Output>
<ows:Identifier>GetByBBox</ows:Identifier>
<ows:Title>GetByBBox</ows:Title>
<LiteralOutput/>
</Output>
</ProcessOutputs>
</ProcessDescription>
</wps:ProcessDescriptions>

An example WPS request to trigger the generation of RDF from TNM data is shown in
the following listing.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<wps:Execute version="1.0.0" service="WPS"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wps/1.0.0"
xmlns:wfs="http://www.opengis.net/wfs"
xmlns:wps="http://www.opengis.net/wps/1.0.0"
xmlns:ows="http://www.opengis.net/ows/1.1"
xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml"
xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc"
xmlns:wcs="http://www.opengis.net/wcs/1.1.1"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.opengis.net/wps/1.0.0
http://schemas.opengis.net/wps/1.0.0/wpsAll.xsd">
<ows:Identifier>gs:Tnm2Rdf</ows:Identifier>
<wps:DataInputs>
<wps:Input>
<ows:Identifier>BBOX</ows:Identifier>
<wps:Data>
<wps:ComplexData mimeType="text/xml">
<gml:Box>
<gml:coordinates>-12909854.299551187,-12909832.258292047
4380430.9646445736,4380281.8091793861</gml:coordinates>
</gml:Box>
</wps:ComplexData>
</wps:Data>
</wps:Input>
<wps:Input>
<ows:Identifier>DataName</ows:Identifier>
<wps:Data>
<wps:LiteralData>Flowline</wps:LiteralData>
</wps:Data>
</wps:Input>
</wps:DataInputs>
<wps:ResponseForm>
<wps:RawDataOutput>
<ows:Identifier>GetByBBox</ows:Identifier>
</wps:RawDataOutput>
</wps:ResponseForm>

28 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

</wps:Execute>

10.3.3 Generating RDF with ETL tools

An alternative approach for generating RDF encoded data was developed using Safe
Software’s FME software, an ETL tool. Use of the ETL tool to generate RDF has the
benefit of flexibility as users can modify the workbench to customize the generated RDF.

An example of the RDF Turtle data generated is shown below:

@prefix : <http://ows.usersmarts.com/nhd/flowline#> .
@prefix geosparql: <http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix dct: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@prefix feature: <http://www.opengis.net/ont/feature#> .
@prefix nhd: <http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .

:20245062 a nhd:Flowline , nhd:HydroFeature ;

dct:created "1999-11-24"^^xsd:date ;
feature:featureType
<http://www.opengis.net/taxonomies/testbed11/hydro/nhd#StreamRiver> ;
nhd:comID "20245062"^^xsd:int ;
nhd:geometry [ a geosparql:Geometry ;
geosparql:asWKT "MULTILINESTRING ((-115.97119433042951
36.53619487662189, -115.95031919712858 36.5737368765636, -
115.9506327971281 36.575156276561415, -115.95094619712762
36.576323809892926, -115.95097499712756 36.576804476558834, -
115.95123159712716 36.5778804765572))"^^geosparql:wktLiteral
] ;
nhd:hasReach <http://ows.usersmarts.com/nhd/reach/16060014044574> ;
nhd:lengthInKM "5.415"^^xsd:double ;
nhd:resolution nhd:Medium .

<http://ows.usersmarts.com/nhd/reach/16060014044574>
a nhd:Reach ;
nhd:reachCode "16060014044574" ;
nhd:reachOf :20245062 .

<http://www.opengis.net/taxonomies/testbed11/hydro/nhd#StreamRiver>
a feature:FeatureType ;
rdfs:label "StreamRiver" ;
skos:notation "46006"^^xsd:int .

nhd:Medium a nhd:Resolution .

:24085230 a nhd:Flowline , nhd:HydroFeature ;

dct:created "2001-02-27"^^xsd:date ;
feature:featureType

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 29

OGC 15-066r1

<http://www.opengis.net/taxonomies/testbed11/hydro/nhd#StreamRiver> ;
nhd:comID "24085230"^^xsd:int ;
nhd:geometry [ a geosparql:Geometry ;
geosparql:asWKT "MULTILINESTRING ((-121.15726798904637
42.88877720009475, -121.17686218901594 42.88773180009639, -
121.17831932234702 42.888627666761636, -121.17885338901289
42.8892846667606, -121.17894538901271 42.89022266675914, -
121.17866238901314 42.89052366675867))"^^geosparql:wktLiteral
] ;
nhd:hasReach <http://ows.usersmarts.com/nhd/reach/17120005008721> ;
nhd:lengthInKM "2.787"^^xsd:double ;
nhd:resolution nhd:Medium .

<http://ows.usersmarts.com/nhd/reach/17120005008721>
a nhd:Reach ;
nhd:reachCode "17120005008721" ;
nhd:reachOf :24085230 .

10.3.4 WFS-G Semantic Mediator

A semantic mediator with support for WFS-G was deployed in the testbed to provide
mediation capabilities between WFS provided by USGS and other services. The WFS-G
semantic mediator is designed to enable heterogeneous gazetteers offered through WFS
to be accessed from a single point of entry and using a common language (based on the
ISO 19112 standard for spatial referencing by identifiers). The WFS-G semantic mediator
was connected to the USGS Geonames WFS. As the latter service (USGS Geonames
WGS) was not based on the WFS-G specification, the former service (the mediator) was
configured to translate the properties specified in filter constraints from ISO 19112 to the
schema supported by the latter service.

The WFS-G semantic mediator was configured to retrieve semantic mappings from a
GeoSPARQL Server and use the semantic mappings to translate place types from one
vocabulary to another (e.g. NGA to USGS gazetteer place types). An example of a WFS-
G request is shown below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<GetFeature
xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/wfs"
xmlns:fes="http://www.opengis.net/fes/2.0"
xmlns:iso19112="http://www.isotc211.org/19112"
xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:xsi="http://www/w3/org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml"
service="WFS"
version="1.1.0"
outputFormat="text/xml; subtype=gml/3.1.1"
maxFeatures="10"
handle="">

30 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

<Query typeName="iso19112:SI_LocationInstance"
srsName="urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326">
<ogc:Filter>
<ogc:And>
<ogc:PropertyIsSemanticallyRelatedTo>
<ogc:PropertyName>iso19112:locationType/@xlink:title</ogc:PropertyName>

<ogc:Literal>water tank</ogc:Literal>
</ogc:PropertyIsSemanticallyRelatedTo>
<ogc:BBOX>
<ogc:PropertyName>iso19112:position</ogc:PropertyName>
<gml:Envelope srsName="urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326">
<gml:lowerCorner>43 -91</gml:lowerCorner>
<gml:upperCorner>47 -87</gml:upperCorner>
</gml:Envelope>
</ogc:BBOX>
</ogc:And>
</ogc:Filter>
</Query>
</GetFeature>

The following is part of the response to the previous request:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<ns5:FeatureCollection xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/gml"
xmlns:ns2="http://www.isotc211.org/19112"
xmlns:ns3="http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmdsf1"
xmlns:ns4="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xmlns:ns5="http://www.opengis.net/wfs"
timeStamp="2015-04-15T15:39:55.409+01:00" numberOfFeatures="3">
<boundedBy/>
<featureMember>
<ns2:SI_LocationInstance>
<ns2:guid>ENV.1429108795409.0</ns2:guid>

<ns2:geographicIdentifier>1958165</ns2:geographicIdentifier>
<ns2:alternativeGeographicIdentifiers>
<ns2:alternativeGeographicIdentifier>
<ns2:name>Lake Labelle (historical)</ns2:name>
</ns2:alternativeGeographicIdentifier>
</ns2:alternativeGeographicIdentifiers>
<ns2:position>
<Point srsName="urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326">
<pos>43.20554490000006 -90.2354016999999</pos>
</Point>
</ns2:position>
<ns2:geographicExtent>
<ns3:EX_GeographicExtent/>
</ns2:geographicExtent>
<ns2:spatialObject>http://1-dot-
env072015.appspot.com/query?
query=SELECT%09%3Fsubject+%3Fobject+where+%7B%3Fsubject+%3Chttp%3A……
geosparql%23wktLiteral%3E%2C%3Fobject%29%7D&amp;output=json
</ns2:spatialObject>

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 31

OGC 15-066r1

<ns2:locationType ns4:href="http://someURL/Reservoir"
ns4:title="Reservoir"/>
</ns2:SI_LocationInstance>
</featureMember>
<featureMember>
<ns2:SI_LocationInstance>
<ns2:guid>ENV.1429108795409.1</ns2:guid>

<ns2:geographicIdentifier>1569493</ns2:geographicIdentifier>
<ns2:alternativeGeographicIdentifiers>
<ns2:alternativeGeographicIdentifier>
<ns2:name>Mill Pond (historical)</ns2:name>
</ns2:alternativeGeographicIdentifier>
</ns2:alternativeGeographicIdentifiers>
<ns2:position>
<Point srsName="urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326">
<pos>43.68736164300009 -89.04159427199994</pos>
</Point>
</ns2:position>
<ns2:geographicExtent>
<ns3:EX_GeographicExtent/>
</ns2:geographicExtent>
<ns2:spatialObject>http://1-dot-
env072015.appspot.com/query?
query=SELECT%09%3Fsubject+%3Fobject+where+%7B%3Fsubject+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2
F
89.04159427199994+43.68736164300009+0.8%29%22%5E%5E%3Chttps%3A%2F%2Fptop.only.wip.la%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwww.
object%29%7D&amp;output=json</ns2:spatialObject>
<ns2:locationType ns4:href="http://someURL/Reservoir"
ns4:title="Reservoir"/>
</ns2:SI_LocationInstance>
</featureMember>
</ns5:FeatureCollection>

10.3.5 GeoSPARQL Servers

The testbed participants deployed GeoSPARQL Servers to provide the ability to query
the RDF-encoded data within the testbed. An example GeoSPARQL query is shown
below. The query shows a FILTER constraint inside a WHERE statement that uses a
GeoSPARQL operator to limit query results to only those within the spatial extent of the
specified polygon. The server allows a client to specify whether the response should be
encoded in any of a number of languages, including RDF/XML, JSON and JSON-LD:
SELECT ?subject ?label ?object WHERE {
?subject <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label> ?label .
?subject <http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#asWKT> ?object
FILTER <http://www.opengis.net/def/function/geosparql/sfWithin>
("POLYGON((-92.775 46.546, -92.775 47.546,-91.723 47.025, -91.723
46.025,-92.775
46.546))"^^<http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#wktLiteral>,?object)
}

32 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

Part of an example response from a SPARQL SELECT query is shown below:

{  
   "head":  {  
       "vars":  [  "subject"  ,  "label"  ,  "object"  ]  
   }  ,  
   "results":  {  
       "bindings":  [  
           {  
               "subject":  {  "type":  "uri"  ,  "value":  "http://1-­‐dot-­‐
env072015.appspot.com/resource/nhd/streamgages/gageloc_11316000"  }  ,  
               "label":  {  "type":  "literal"  ,  "value":  "BEAR  R  NR  SALT  SPRINGS  DAM  
CA"  }  ,  
               "object":  {  "datatype":  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#wktLiteral"  ,  "type":  "typed-­‐literal"  ,  
"value":  "POINT(-­‐120.28919999999999391  38.49340000000000117)"  }  
           }  ,  
           {  
               "subject":  {  "type":  "uri"  ,  "value":  "http://1-­‐dot-­‐
env072015.appspot.com/resource/nhd/streamgages/gageloc_11425410"  }  ,  
               "label":  {  "type":  "literal"  ,  "value":  "ROCK  CREEK  LK  NR  AUBURN  CA"  }  
,  
               "object":  {  "datatype":  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#wktLiteral"  ,  "type":  "typed-­‐literal"  ,  
"value":  "POINT(-­‐121.08490000000000464  38.91199999999999903)"  }  
           }  ,  
           {  
               "subject":  {  "type":  "uri"  ,  "value":  "http://1-­‐dot-­‐
env072015.appspot.com/resource/nhd/streamgages/gageloc_11299995"  }  ,  
               "label":  {  "type":  "literal"  ,  "value":  "TULLOCH  RES  NR  KNIGHTS  FERRY  
CA"  }  ,  
               "object":  {  "datatype":  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#wktLiteral"  ,  "type":  "typed-­‐literal"  ,  
"value":  "POINT(-­‐120.60460000000000491  37.87630000000000052)"  }  
           }  
       ]  
   }  
}

Part of the response to the above query is shown below, encoded in JSON-LD:

{  
   "@id"  :  "nhd-­‐gage:gageloc_11298000",  
   "@type"  :  [  "nhd:StreamGage",  "nhd:HydroFeature"  ],  
   "asWKT"  :  "POINT(-­‐120.16880000000001871  38.09259999999999735)",  
   "active"  :  "1",  
   "agency_cd"  :  "USGS",  
   "comid"  :  "0",  
   "dasqkm"  :  "66.9",  
   "eventdate"  :  "2014-­‐12-­‐30T00:00:00",  
   "eventtype"  :  "StreamGage",  

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 33

OGC 15-066r1

   "featurecla"  :  "0",  
   "featurecom"  :  "0",  
   "featuredet"  :  "http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/nwisman/?site_no=11298000",  
   "flcomid"  :  "343847",  
   "gagesii"  :  "Non-­‐ref",  
   "hasReach"  :  "reach/18040010000044",  
   "latsite"  :  "38.09242097",  
   "lonsite"  :  "-­‐120.1687993",  
   "measure"  :  "88.95987",  
   "offset"  :  "0.0",  
   "reachcode"  :  "18040010000044",  
   "reachresol"  :  "Medium",  
   "reachsmdat"  :  "NULL",  
   "source_dat"  :  "  ",  
   "source_fea"  :  "11298000",  
   "source_ori"  :  "USGS,  Water  Resources  Division",  
   "state"  :  "CA",  
   "state_cd"  :  "6",  
   "station_nm"  :  "SF  STANISLAUS  R  NR  LONG  BARN  CA",  
   "label"  :  "SF  STANISLAUS  R  NR  LONG  BARN  CA",  
   "seeAlso"  :  [  "http://live.dbpedia.org/resource/Stream_gauge",  
"http://cegis.usgs.gov/NHDOntology/GagingStation"  ],  
   "@context"  :  {  
       "agency_cd"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#agency_cd",  
       "featurecla"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#featurecla",  
       "hasReach"  :  {  
           "@id"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#hasReach",  
           "@type"  :  "@id"  
       },  
       "reachcode"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#reachcode",  
       "lonsite"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#lonsite",  
       "flcomid"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#flcomid",  
       "active"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#active",  
       "comid"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#comid",  
       "asWKT"  :  {  
           "@id"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#asWKT",  
           "@type"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#wktLiteral"  
       },  
       "featurecom"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#featurecom",  
       "offset"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#offset",  
       "state"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#state",  
       "dasqkm"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#dasqkm",  
       "featuredet"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#featuredet",  
       "eventdate"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#eventdate",  
       "seeAlso"  :  {  
           "@id"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-­‐schema#seeAlso",  
           "@type"  :  "@id"  
       },  
       "latsite"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#latsite",  
       "state_cd"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#state_cd",  

34 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

       "gagesii"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#gagesii",  
       "station_nm"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#station_nm",  
       "source_dat"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#source_dat",  
       "measure"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#measure",  
       "reachsmdat"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#reachsmdat",  
       "label"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-­‐schema#label",  
       "source_fea"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#source_fea",  
       "reachresol"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#reachresol",  
       "eventtype"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#eventtype",  
       "source_ori"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#source_ori",  
       "@base"  :  "http://ows.usersmarts.com/nhd/flowline#",  
       ""  :  "http://ows.usersmarts.com/nhd/flowline#",  
       "nhd-­‐gage"  :  "http://1-­‐dot-­‐
env072015.appspot.com/resource/nhd/streamgages/",  
       "geo"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#",  
       "foaf"  :  "http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/",  
       "symbol"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/portrayal/symbol#",  
       "community"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/community#",  
       "j.1"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/portrayal/symbol#",  
       "j.0"  :  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/",  
       "cegis"  :  "http://cegis.usgs.gov/surfacewater/GIS-­‐NHD/",  
       "rdfs"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-­‐schema#",  
       "geosparql"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#",  
       "nhd-­‐catch"  :  "http://1-­‐dot-­‐
env072015.appspot.com/resource/nhd/catchments/",  
       "dct"  :  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/",  
       "owl"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#",  
       "xsd"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#",  
       "rdf"  :  "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-­‐rdf-­‐syntax-­‐ns#",  
       "feature"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/feature#",  
       "nhd"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#",  
       "skos"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#",  
       "dbpedia-­‐ont"  :  "http://live.dbpedia.org/ontology/"  
   }  
}

The following is an example of a catchment exported in JSON-LD. The approach

adopted allowed for StreamGage instances to be referenced from a hasStreamGage
predicate, the value of which was dereferencable:
{  
   "@id"  :  "http://1-­‐dot-­‐
env072015.appspot.com/resource/nhd/catchments/catchment_2853539",  
   "@type"  :  [  "nhd:Catchment",  "nhd:HydroFeature"  ],  
   "asWKT"  :  "MULTIPOLYGON(((-­‐122.11754157499997575  38.78749377707858059,-­‐
122.11763618499996653  38.78775138507855047,-­‐122.11797172699994007  

Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium. 35

OGC 15-066r1

38.78767874907858726,-­‐122.11687049100000024  38.78763904607855295,-­‐
122.11754157499997575  38.78749377707858059)))",  
   "areasqkm"  :  "3.4479",  
   "featureid"  :  "2853539",  
   "gml_id"  :  "catchment.2538261",  
   "gridcode"  :  "1410574",  
   "hasGridCode"  :  "http://ows.usersmarts.com/nhd/grid/",  
   "shape_area"  :  "0.000357519227295",  
   "shape_length"  :  "0.109974897791",  
   "sourcefc"  :  "NHDFlowline",  
   "label"  :  "1410574",  
   "@context"  :  {  
       "gml_id"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#gml_id",  
       "shape_length"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#shape_length",  
       "shape_area"  :  
"http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#shape_area",  
       "label"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-­‐schema#label",  
       "asWKT"  :  {  
           "@id"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#asWKT",  
           "@type"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#wktLiteral"  
       },  
       "sourcefc"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#sourcefc",  
       "gridcode"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#gridcode",  
       "featureid"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#featureid",  
       "areasqkm"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#areasqkm",  
       "hasGridCode"  :  {  
           "@id"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#hasGridCode",  
           "@type"  :  "@id"  
       },  
       "rdfs"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-­‐schema#",  
       "geosparql"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#",  
       "geo"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#",  
       "foaf"  :  "http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/",  
       "symbol"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/portrayal/symbol#",  
       "dct"  :  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/",  
       "owl"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#",  
       "xsd"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#",  
       "community"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/community#",  
       "j.1"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/portrayal/symbol#",  
       "rdf"  :  "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-­‐rdf-­‐syntax-­‐ns#",  
       "j.0"  :  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/",  
       "nhd"  :  "http://www.opengis.net/ont/testbed11/hydro/nhd#",  
       "skos"  :  "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#"  
   }  
}

36 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

10.3.6 Client Component

The various web services were connected to a client component that had been
implemented as a web application. A screenshot of the client component is presented in
Figure 5.

Figure 5. Screenshot of the client component

11 Discussion

A number of observations were made during the implementation of the testbed

architecture.

The CSW was deployed in the testbed to provide a resource discovery component, as
described in Section 10.3.1. Such a component is particularly relevant to the USGS
because of the vast number and variety of web services that the agency publishes on the
World Wide Web. Publishing metadata describing the location, content and lineage of
these services is not only necessary for facilitating access by the general public, but is
also necessary for enabling USGS personnel to manage the data that the separate groups
within the organization publish. This engineering report recommends that the USGS

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OGC 15-066r1

establishes a registry of all USGS services offering NHD data to support the management
of unique identifiers within a future Linked Data framework.

The WPS takes as inputs the name of the feature type (e.g. Flowline) and the bounding
rectangle (box) around the area of interest, as described in Section 10.3.2. Considering
that various groups within the USGS have published datasets derived from NHD data, a
centralized WPS configured to process all of the published datasets would be appropriate
for establishing a Linked Data service for the USGS. Such a WPS would also need to
maintain cross references between the various NHD features as was demonstrated in the
testbed through referencing of different feature instances to NHD reaches through a
reachcode.

The testbed observed that there are several instances of WFS offering NHD data. In some
cases those WFS offer data for overlapping areas. Link Data offers the use of
owl:sameAs to represent URI aliases that refer to resources that are similar, such as
representations of the same stream gauge from different feature collections. URI aliases
can be dereferenced to descriptions of the same resource thereby allowing for different
expressions of views about the same resource to be represented. URI aliases also reduce
the possibility of a single point of failure. In the case of the USGS, an approach could be
for all Linked Data representations of the same NHD feature instances to cross reference
one another.

Recommendation: That the USGS apply predicates such as owl:sameAs to identify

equivalent NHD feature instances when published by different groups within the USGS.

To enable other data providers to link to NHD data, it is important to advertise NHDPlus
Linked Data to the general public. There are a number of semantic web search engines
available on the World Wide Web. Two examples of such engines are Sindice10 and the
Datahub11. Sindice is a platform to build applications on top of this data. Sindice collects
Web Data in many ways, following existing web standards, and offers Search and
Querying across this data, updated live every few minutes. The Datahub is a data
management platform from the Open Knowledge Foundation, based on the CKAN tool
which has been designed for managing and publishing collections of data. Registration on
the Datahub allows a Linked Data collection to be included in the Linked Open Data
cloud that is illustrated in Figure 1.

Recommendation: That, upon producing an NHD Linked Data product, the USGS should
aim to advertise theavailability of the product on the aforementioned catalogues and other
similar engines.

10 http://sindice.com/

11 http://datahub.io/

38 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.

 OGC 15-066r1

The testbed results clearly show that there are several benefits of using RDF to publish
NHD and Gazetteer data as Linked Data. First, the use of HTTP URIs makes it possible
to generate globally unique data. Second, the ability to dereference URIs makes it
possible for client applications to discover and retrieve the resources described by those
URIs. Third, the simplicity of the triple model makes it usable by any application capable
of associating data from different sources. Fourth, all (or most) of the information
associated with an entity can be combined by merging into a single graph thereby
providing a record of historical and current knowledge about that entity. Fifth, the ability
to specify new predicates or reuse existing ones, offers significantly more flexibility than
alternative approaches such as application schemas described as XML schema definition
(XSD). Sixth, the use of controlled vocabularies such as OWL and SKOS, allows some
structure to be applied within RDF-encoded data when necessary.

12 Conclusions

This engineering report has provided guidelines on the publication of hydrographic and
hydrological data using Linked Data principles applied to technologies based on OGC
standards. Also presented are the findings and lessons learnt from the experimentation
conducted by Testbed 11. The engineering report concludes that OGC web services,
supported by GeoSPARQL Servers can indeed be used to generate and publish USGS
NHD and gazetteer data as Linked Data. Further, the engineering report also concludes
that existing NHD identifiers can be used to provide the cross referencing required to link
NHD features to one another, and also to link to non-NHD data.

12.1 Recommendations

This report makes the following recommendations:

Recommendation 1 — Registry for managing unique identifiers for Linked Data: The
USGS should establish a registry of all web feature services offering NHD data to
support the management of unique identifiers within a future Linked Data framework.

Recommendation 2 — Application of URI aliases: The USGS should apply predicates

such as owl:sameAs to identify similar NHD feature instances when published by
different groups within the USGS.

Recommendation 3 — Advertise future NHD Linked Data Products in Semantic Web

Search Engines: Upon producing an NHD Linked Data product, the USGS should aim to
advertise the availability of the product on the aforementioned catalogues and other
similar engines.

Recommendation 4 — Establish a standard for a GeoSPARQL Server: The OGC should

establish a Standard Working Group to develop a specification for a GeoSPARQL
Server.

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OGC 15-066r1

12.2 Revision history

Date Release Editor Primary clauses Description

modified
11-Aug- Final Carl Reed Various Prepare for publication.
2015

40 Copyright © 2015 Open Geospatial Consortium.