The integration of the raster data cube alongside another form of geospatial data (e.g., vector data) raises considerable challenges when it comes to managing and representing it using knowledge graphs. Such integration can play an invaluable role in handling the heterogeneity of geospatial data and linking the raster data cube to semantic technology standards. Many recent approaches have been attempted to address this issue, but they often lack robust formal elaboration or solely concentrate on integrating raster data cubes without considering the inclusion of semantic spatial entities along with their spatial relationships. This may constitute a major shortcoming when it comes to performing advanced geospatial queries and semantically enriching geospatial models. In this paper, we propose a framework that can enable such semantic integration and advanced querying of raster data cubes based on the virtual knowledge graph (VKG) paradigm. This framework defines a semantic representation model for raster data cubes that extends the GeoSPARQL ontology. With such a model, we can combine the semantics of raster data cubes with features-based models that involve geometries as well as spatial and topological relationships. This could allow us to formulate spatiotemporal queries using SPARQL in a natural way by using ontological concepts at an appropriate level of abstraction. We propose an implementation of the proposed framework based on a VKG system architecture. In addition, we perform an experimental evaluation to compare our framework with other existing systems in terms of performance and scalability. Finally, we show the potential and the limitations of our implementation and we discuss several possible future works.

Over the last decade, innovative computer technologies and the multiplication of geospatial data acquisition solutions have transformed the geographic information systems (GIS) landscape and opened up new opportunities to close the gap between GIS and the dynamics of geographic phenomena. There is a demand to further develop spatio-temporal conceptual models to comprehensively represent the nature of the evolution of geographic objects. The latter involves a set of considerations like those related to managing changes and object identities, modeling possible causal relations, and integrating multiple interpretations. While conventional literature generally presents these concepts separately and rarely approaches them from a holistic perspective, they are in fact interrelated. Therefore, we believe that the semantics of modeling would be improved by considering these concepts jointly. In this work, we propose to represent these interrelationships in the form of a hierarchical pyramidal framework and to further explore this set of concepts. The objective of this framework is to provide a guideline to orient the design of future generations of GIS data models, enabling them to achieve a better representation of available spatio-temporal data. In addition, this framework aims at providing keys for a new interpretation and classification of spatio-temporal conceptual models. This work can be beneficial for researchers, students, and developers interested in advanced spatio-temporal modeling.

The search for the most appropriate GIS data model to integrate, manipulate and analyse spatio-temporal data raises several research questions about the conceptualisation of geographic spaces. Although there is now a general consensus that many environmental phenomena require field and object conceptualisations to provide a comprehensive GIS representation, there is still a need for better integration of these dual representations of space within a formal spatio-temporal database. The research presented in this paper introduces a hybrid and formal dual data model for the representation of spatio-temporal data. The whole approach has been fully implemented in PostgreSQL and its spatial extension PostGIS, where the SQL language is extended by a series of data type constructions and manipulation functions to support hybrid queries. The potential of the approach is illustrated by an application to underwater geomorphological dynamics oriented towards the monitoring of the evolution of seabed changes. A series of performance and scalability experiments are also reported to demonstrate the computational performance of the model.