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Dalia E Varanka, PhD

Dr. Varanka, Research Physical Scientist, leads the Geospatial Semantics and Ontology project of the Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science.

Dr. Varanka was a research assistant at The Field Museum of Natural History and later at The Newberry Library in Chicago. She started her Federal career at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 1993 and has been a Research Grade Evaluation (RGE) scientist since 1998 with the USGS National Geospatial Program. Dr. Varanka taught Geospatial Ontology and Semantics at Johns Hopkins University and is Chair of the Commission on Geospatial Semantics of the International Cartographic Association.

 

Science and Products

Filter Total Items: 38

A geospatial knowledge graph prototype for national topographic mapping

Knowledge graphs are a form of database representation and handling that show the potential to better meet the challenges of data interoperability, semi-automated information reasoning, and information retrieval. Geospatial knowledge graphs (GKG) have at their core specialized forms of applied ontology that provide coherent spatial context to a domain of information including non-spatial attribute
Authors
Dalia E. Varanka
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS)

Know, Know Where, KnowWhereGraph: A densely connected, cross-domain knowledge graph and geo-enrichment service stack for applications in environmental intelligence

Knowledge graphs are a novel paradigm for the representation, retrieval, and integration of data from highly heterogeneous sources. Within just a few years, knowledge graphs andKnowledge graphs (KGs) are a novel paradigm for the representation, retrieval, and integration of data from highly heterogeneous sources. Within just a few years, KGs and their supporting technologies have become a core com
Authors
Krzysztof Janowicz, Pascal Hitzler, Wenwen Li, Dean Rehberger, Mark P. Schildhauer, Rui Zhu, Cogan Shimizu, Colby K Fisher, Ling Cai, Gengchen Mai, Joseph Zalewski, Lu Zhou, Shirly Stephen, Seila Gonzalez, Anna Lopez-Carr, Andrew Schroeder, Dave Smith, E. Lynn Usery, Dalia E. Varanka, Dawn Wright, Sizhe Wang, Yuanyuan Tian, Zilong Liu, Meilin Shi, Anthony D'Onofrio, Zhining Gu, Kitty Currier
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area

GIS object data properties

Data properties are characteristics of GIS attribute systems and values whose design and format impacts analytical and computational processing.  Geospatial data are expressed at conceptual, logical, and physical levels of database abstraction intended to represent geographical information. The appropriate design of attribute systems and selection of properties should be logically consistent and s
Authors
Dalia E. Varanka
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS)

Creating annotations for web ontology language ontology generated from relational databases

Many approaches that have been proposed that allow users to create a Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontology from a relational database fail to include metadata that are inherent to the database tables. Without metadata, the resulting ontology lacks annotation properties. These properties are key when performing ontology alignment. This paper proposes a method to include relevant metadata through ann
Authors
Matthew Edward Wagner, Tanner Edward Fry, Jacques Jules Bourquin, Dalia E. Varanka
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS)

Improving geospatial query performance of an interoperable geographic situation-awareness system (IGSAS) for disaster response

Disaster response operations require fast and coordinated actions based on the real-time disaster situation information. Although Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) or crowdsourced geospatial data applications have demonstrated to be valuable tools for gathering real-time disaster situation information, they only provide limited utility for disaster response coordination because of the lack
Authors
Chuanrong Zhang, Tian Zhao, E. Lynn Usery, Dalia E. Varanka, Weidong Li
By
National Geospatial Program

A system design for implementing advanced feature descriptions for a map knowledge base

A prototype system to explore Linked Data that semantically integrates geospatial data in various formats from different publication sources with data from The National Map of the U.S. Geological Survey is presented. The focus is on accessing advanced feature descriptions for data from The National Map with data coreferenced from other sources. The prototype uses Geoserver to access The National M
Authors
Matthew Wagner, Dalia E. Varanka, E. Lynn Usery
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS)

Integrating the sociology of space with geospatial semantics relation properties for data graphs

This research posits that socially constructed spatial relations address concepts of interactions instead of intersections, human/tool agents instead of physical processes, and broader ranges of geographical outcomes. The hypothesis is that social space can be represented by using patterns of logic relations between sets of entities. The data corpus of spatial relations was extracted from geograp
Authors
Dalia E. Varanka
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS)

Alignment of surface water ontologies: A comparison of manual and automated approaches

More data are being collected about the world around us than ever before, but effectively using this information requires different data stores to be integrated in such a way that they can be seamlessly queried and analyzed. Automated alignment algorithms exist to facilitate this data integration challenge. In this paper we examine the utility of two current leading automated alignment systems to
Authors
Michelle Cheatham, Dalia E. Varanka, Fatima Arauz, Lu Zhou
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS)

Semantically supported linked data mapping

Semantic technology based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF) modeling environment has introduced new data management capabilities that can lead to innovative cartographic techniques. This report describes research toward more semantically expressive linked geospatial data mapping, topics of research, and an avenue for further  international collaboration.
Authors
Dalia E. Varanka
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS)

Topographic mapping evolution: From field and photogrammetric data collection to GIS production and Linked Open Data

Whither the topographic map? Topographic mapping historically has been approached as a map factory operation through the period 1879-1990. During this time, data were field and photogrammetrically collected; cartographically verified and annotated creating a compilation manuscript; further edited, generalized, symbolized, and produced as a graphic output product using lithography, or more recently
Authors
E. Lynn Usery, Dalia E. Varanka, Larry Davis
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, National Geospatial Program, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS), Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS), National Geospatial Technical Operations Center

GNIS-LD: Serving and visualizing the Geographic Names Information System Gazetteer as linked data

In this dataset description paper we introduce the GNIS-LD, an authoritative and public domain Linked Dataset derived from the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) which was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. GNIS provides data about current, as well as historical, physical, and cultural geographic features in the United States. We describe
Authors
Blake Regalia, Krzysztof Janowicz, Gengchen Mai, Dalia E. Varanka, E. Lynn Usery
By
National Geospatial Program

The map as knowledge base

This paper examines the concept and implementation of a map as a knowledge base. A map as a knowledge base means that the visual map is not only the descriptive compilation of data and design principles, but also involves a compilation of semantic propositions and logical predicates that create a body of knowledge organized as a map. The digital product of a map as knowledge base can be interprete
Authors
Dalia E. Varanka, E. Lynn Usery
By
Core Science Systems Mission Area, National Geospatial Program, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS), National Geospatial Technical Operations Center
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Use of Controlled Vocabularies in USGS Information Applications: Requirements Analysis for Automated Processes and Services (Bureau-wide Application)

Large online data catalogs use controlled vocabularies to categorize datasets in ways that allow end users to sort and select data matching their needs. The eventual goal of this project is to build functional services so that the USGS Thesaurus and other USGS-controlled vocabularies will be available to the English-speaking scientific community, especially within the USGS where they can be used t
By
Community for Data Integration (CDI)
link

Use of Controlled Vocabularies in USGS Information Applications: Requirements Analysis for Automated Processes and Services (Bureau-wide Application)

Large online data catalogs use controlled vocabularies to categorize datasets in ways that allow end users to sort and select data matching their needs. The eventual goal of this project is to build functional services so that the USGS Thesaurus and other USGS-controlled vocabularies will be available to the English-speaking scientific community, especially within the USGS where they can be used t
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