DLMAPS = Description Logic Maps: Ontology-Based Spatial Queries to Digital City Maps
Another piece of Common Lisp & CLIM (Common Lisp Interface Manager) legacy software from my quarter century-old Lisp archive :-) It still works flawlessly in 2021. Tested with LispWorks 6.1 & CLIM on Ubuntu, 32bit Motif port. Not sure about Windows.
A prototypical ontology-based spatial information system, capable of answering complex ontology-based spatial queries. The program / framework was written between 2003 and 2005, as part of my PhD thesis. Here you can find more details about DLMAPS, including publications.
DLMAPS can be considered the first hybrid ontology-based geographical information system that relies on Description Logic reasoning. In a sense, its spatio-thematic query language is an ancient predecessor of GeoSPARQL. It features a rich ontology-based spatial query language to so-called "substrates". Substrates subsume Description Logic ABoxes, RDFs graphs, property graphs, and other graph-like knowledge representation structures. A unique feature of the substrate data model is that their nodes are not simply symbols, but can have complex structure, i.e., are geometric objects (polygons, lines, points) in an Euclidean (geometric) space. This complex (geometric, metric, topological) structure / space can then be queried with a complex ontology-based query language. DLMAPS' query language encompasses vocabulary and expressive means for formulating qualitative spatial relationships (RCC relations), as well as metric, geometric, and thematic constraints.
The software in this repository is a cut-down version of the original DLMAPS. The full version was also capable of using the Racer description logic reasoner for ABox query answering (i.e., in a hybrid way). Here, a special-purpose Description Logic reasoner, called "MiDeLoRa" (for Michael's Description Logic Reasoner), is used for answering the ontology-based parts of the queries instead. MiDeLoRa's ABox is a special geometric map substrate in this instantiation; i.e., the ABox nodes / individuals are geometric objects, and their spatial properties are hence intrinsicially ("analogical") represented, and can be queried.
DLMAPS is an instantiation of a general framework: the substrate representation, reasoning, and querying framework, as described in my 2005 PhD thesis. Another instantiations of this framework was used for realizing the new Racer Query Language (nRQL) of the Racer OWL / Description Logic reasoner. nRQL was first included with Racer in ~ 2004. Racer is OpenSource these days as well: https://github.com/ha-mo-we/Racer/.
nRQL / DLMAPS provided the first Description Logic ABox expressive, conjunctive query language with a heuristic query optimizer that drastically improved query performance (i.e., frequently by several orders of magnitude). The query planner / optimizer was based on query rewritting, sub-goal / conjunct reordering, and query inference (i.e., identification and removal of implied and hence redundant sub-queries, identification of inconsistent, tautological, or subsumed sub-queries in combination with caching, query realization, etc.) Many of these ideas and techniques have later been adapted, adopted, and analyzed somewhat more theoretical by other researchers in the Semantic Web and Description Logics field, and have been applied to SPARQL and GeoSPARQL as well. Our implemented and documented techniques for geospatial, ontology-based query answering predate subsequent work on GeoSPARQL by years, yet there are almost no citations of our work.
But back to DLMAPS:
Here are a few example queries (these can directly be entered into
the "Query Inspector" by typing their respective function names;
these pre-defined queries are in the files
src/map-viewer/q-queries.lisp):
(defun q1 ()
(let ((q '(?*x wohngebiet))
(v '(?*x)))
(inspector-answer-query q v
"Show all residential areas.")))
(defun q3 ()
(let ((q
'(and
(?*x wohngebiet)
(?*y gruenflaeche)
(?*x ?*y ec)))
(v '(?*x ?*y)))
(inspector-answer-query q v "Show all residential areas that have
some adjacent (EC Externally
Connected) green areas.")))
(defun q7 ()
(let ((q
'(and (?*x (or teich see))
(?*x ?*y ec)
(?*y (or fluss bach))
(?*y ?*z (or ec po))
(?*z wohngebiet)
(?*x ?*w pp)
(?*w park)))
(v '(?*x ?*y ?*z ?*w)))
(inspector-answer-query q v
"Environmental protection monitoring: Show
all creeks or rivers that cross (RCC
relation EC or PO) a residential area that
flows into a lake or pond that is
contained in a park. ")))
(defun q12 ()
(let ((q
`(?*x
(and
wohnen
(some ec
(and wiese-weide
(or (some tppi teich-nicht-schiffbar)
(some ntppi teich-nicht-schiffbar))))
(or (some tppi oeffentliches-gebaeude)
(some ntppi oeffentliches-gebaeude))
(all ec (or wiese-weide parkplatz)))))
(v '(?*x)))
(inspector-answer-query q v
"Identify high quality residential areas:
Show all residential areas containing some
buildings (RCC relation TPPI union NTPPI)
that have an adjacent (RCC relation EC)
meadow that contains a lake or
pond. Moreover, all areas adjacent to the
residential area have to be parking lots
or meadows.")))
(defun q13 ()
(let ((q
'(and (?*wohngebiet wohngebiet)
(?*u-bahn-station u-bahn-station)
(?u-bahn-station ?wohngebiet (:inside-epsilon 100))
(?*wohngebiet ?*teich :contains)
(?*teich (or teich see))))
(v '(?*wohngebiet ?*u-bahn-station ?*teich)))
(inspector-answer-query q v
"Identify high quality residential areas:
Show all residential areas containing a
lake or pond, such that a subway station
is close by, i.e., in the vicinity of 100
meters around the epsilon buffer area of
the living area `(:inside-epsilon 100)`.")))
(defun q14 ()
(let ((q
'(and
;; note: Q operator not implemented in MIDELORA:
;; (?*x (and wohngebiet (at-least 8 ntppi gebaeude)))
;; hence:
(?*x (and wohngebiet (at-least 8 ntppi top)))
(?x (:satisfies
(and (geometry::is-geom-polygon-p object)
(> (geometry:calculate-area object) 50000))))))
(v '(?*x)))
(inspector-answer-query q v
"Show all residential areas that have an
area of at least 50000 m^2 and contain at
least 8 buildings (RCC relation
NTPPI).")))
(defun q17 ()
(let ((q
'(and
(?*wohngebiet wohngebiet)
(?*wohngebiet (ALL EC (not (or industrie gewerbe))))
(?*wohngebiet ?*gebaeude :contains)
(?*gebaeude gebaeude)
(?kirche ?wohngebiet (:inside-epsilon 200))
(?*u-bahn-station u-bahn-station)
(?u-bahn-station ?wohngebiet (:inside-epsilon 100))
(?*wohngebiet ?*teich :contains)
(?*teich (or teich see))
(?*kirche kirche)))
(v
'(?*wohngebiet
?*gebaeude
?*kirche
?*u-bahn-station
?*teich)))
(inspector-answer-query q v
"Show all residential areas such that all
adjacent are NOT industrial areas /
industrial parks, and it contains some
buildings. Moreover, we require that it
contains a lake or pond, and that a
subway station and a church are close
by (within the area's 100-meter
resp. 200-meter outer epsilon buffer
area).")))
Here are some pictures for illustration:
Adjust the logical pathname translations in dlmaps-sysdcl.lisp to
match your environment. Then, simply do a load, and start the program
with (dlmaps) followed by (dlmaps-demo). Load the maps/va4.sqd
map from the "Map Viewer" via "Load SQD Map" menu. When the map has
loaded, go to the "Query Inspector" frame / window. Here, you can
enter one of 20 pre-defined queries and get it executed, simply type
q1 to q19 into the "Query Processor" console pane. Some queries
(e.g., q17) will take some time to execute the first time. Also,
queries that use an (all ...) quantifier will require that you
"close the roles" first - this can be done right after the SQD map was
loaded, using the menu item "Close Roles" from the "Map Viewer"
menu. Enjoy!