Geoparsing
Encyclopedia
Geoparsing is the process of assigning geographic identifiers (e.g., codes or geographic coordinates expressed as latitude
-longitude
) to textual words and phrases that occur in unstructured content, such as "twenty miles north east of Jalalabad". You can also geoparse location references from other forms of media, for example audio content in which a speaker mentions a place. With geographic coordinates the features can be mapped and entered into Geographic Information Systems
. Two primary uses of the geographic coordinates derived from unstructured content are to plot portions of the content on maps and to search the content using a map as a filter.
Geoparsing goes beyond geocoding
. Geocoding analyzes unambiguous structured location references, such as postal addresses and rigorously formatted numerical coordinates. Geoparsing handles ambiguous references in unstructured discourse, such as "Al Hamra," which is the name of several places, including towns in both Syria and Yemen.
A geoparser is a piece of software or a (web) service that helps in this process.
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
-longitude
Longitude
Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....
) to textual words and phrases that occur in unstructured content, such as "twenty miles north east of Jalalabad". You can also geoparse location references from other forms of media, for example audio content in which a speaker mentions a place. With geographic coordinates the features can be mapped and entered into Geographic Information Systems
Geographic Information System
A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
. Two primary uses of the geographic coordinates derived from unstructured content are to plot portions of the content on maps and to search the content using a map as a filter.
Geoparsing goes beyond geocoding
Geocoding
Geocoding is the process of finding associated geographic coordinates from other geographic data, such as street addresses, or zip codes...
. Geocoding analyzes unambiguous structured location references, such as postal addresses and rigorously formatted numerical coordinates. Geoparsing handles ambiguous references in unstructured discourse, such as "Al Hamra," which is the name of several places, including towns in both Syria and Yemen.
A geoparser is a piece of software or a (web) service that helps in this process.
External links
- GEOLocate automated georeferencing
- BioGeomancer - Semi-automatic georeferencing
- GEOnet Names Server - Freely available GIS information for areas outside of the U.S.A. and Antarctica, updated monthly by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (US BGN)
- Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) - Freely available database containing information on almost 2 million physical features, places, and landmarks in the U.S.A.