Page 122 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 43

122 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.9, 2017

The spatial-temporal model of historical geography data proposed in this paper divides the space
into two concepts, place and place name, and holds these two concepts as objects by referring Sino-
family-tree GIS, GeoNames, Getty and so on. A place corresponds to the spatial entity existing or
ever existed in the real world, while a place name is the name (code name) given to a spatial entity
by humans. Places include information of spatial features, property features, temporal features and
so on. In space, places can be the two-dimensional spaces of points, lines and surfaces, or three-
dimensional spaces with altitude. Place names have corresponding feature information including
administrative division, settlement, administrative seat, administrative attribution and the duration
of time horizon as well as life-cycle information such as new construction, rename, seat migration
and revocation.
A clear distinction between the place and place name helps to clarify the changes of place
names in different temporal by different factors, and the relationships between these changes
and place entities. The place exists with the presence of place name. The place name must have
a corresponding place and the place must have at least one place name to refer to. Generally
speaking, there is a one-to-one relationship between the place and place name, and any change in
place name will result in a new place. However, in order to simplify the model, a new place will
be generated in this model only when the spatial features of the place change. A place name is
no longer merely a textual property of a place, it’s also a concept in itself, which is a name given
under the influence of human’s humanity activities in history.
In this model, place names are regarded as concepts abstracted from symbols. If the place names
are literally consistent, then they will be considered as the same place name instance. For example,
Shanghai Shi and Shanghai Xian are two different instances of place names. There are a number of
Anchang Xian happened in history. Although they are far away from each other, “Anchang Xian” is
considered as the same place name because they have the same verbal representation. Its different
administrative affiliations, administrative seats and corresponding time horizons are distinguished
by the various properties of the instance. Its geospatial features are distinguished by different
entities corresponding to the place name. As a result, the same place name may correspond to
different place name entities at different times.
Figure 1 below shows the basic idea of this model. The rounded rectangles represent the
concepts as class of ontology. The dotted lines with arrows represent property used to express
conceptual features and the relationships between the concepts. The starting point of the arrow is
the domain of this property. The target point of the arrow is the “range” of this property. If starting
from a place, different place names of the place at different times can be found. If starting from the
place name, different places corresponding to the place name at different times can be found.
In this model, the concept of events has also been introduced to model changes of place or place
names. Events contain elements such as occurrence time, event content and event type while the
administrative seat and place associated with the event refer to the corresponding seat and place of
the place name when the event happened. Accordingly, time property is given to the place of the