Remote Sensing Image Mining: Applying Action-Driven Ontologies to the

Change of Landuse Patterns

Monika Nientiedt

Abstract. This paper discusses a conceptual framework to examine the semantics of land use and land
cover change in the Amazon region. The proposed model concentrates on the semantic description of spatial
entities as well as the entity of change. The multi-level concept of action-driven ontologies and notions from
an image ontology were adapted to the use case of land use pattern change. Having a full description of the
process that describes the evolution of a single pattern brings new possibilities to the interpretation of the
change of land use patterns. Comparison of an aggregation of processes can bring new insights in the overall
tendency of change. A formalized representation would be able to exactly reproduce which pattern classes
mainly emerged in a particular year, and to reflect geometric changes of patterns that are already present.

1 Introduction
In the field of spatial information, one of the fastest growing archives are remote sensing image
databases [Silva]. But producing information and using this information to predict future
developments turns out to be a complex task. A "knowlegde gap" has arisen from the limited
capacities to analyze and exploit the full potential of the data we collect. Image mining techniques
are capable of detecting and classifying features apparent in an image, but often fail to detect
objects that have similar spectral signitures [Silva]. New techniques should advance not only the
extraction, but also interpretation of the information gained. This leads to the problem of modelling
and integration of such information for geographical information systems. More sophisticated
conceptual models of geographic data and its computer representation are needed [Fonseca, 2002 ]
.This implicates not only the further development of image mining algorithms, but rather the
integration of semantics to enrich our data models.

In the field of geographic information science, a lot of research effort has gone into spatiality.
But understanding geographic phenomena involves knowledge of spatiality as well as temporality.
Hence spatio-temporal datasets form an important field of research on data mining.
[Yao, 2003]. Modelling development of spatial objects affords a sound foundation for the objects
itself. Only a semanticly rich description will ensure the ability of proper reasoning about change
and evolution, that can be automated and goes further than pure observation and comparison of
images. But we are not solely looking for the semantics of the spatial entities involved. Grenon and
Smith state in [Grenon, Smith], that geographical changes are entities in their own right. Therefore
we want to model the phenomenon of change itself aswell [Camara, 2005]. This paper focuses on
modelling change of spatial patterns detected in a sequence of remote sensing images with an
emphasis on semantics. The objective of the proposed conceptual model is to describe data about
processes and actions to provide applicable information to specialised analysis, modelling and
simulation tools, not to replace such [Claramunt, 1997].

2 Related work
Camara et al. [Camara, 2005] propose the concept of action-driven ontologies for modelling
incremental change in spatial objects. Action-driven ontologies constitute an architecture for an
ontology of change. The basic notion is the concept of actions. From their point of view actions
form an external factor which causes entities to change. Action-driven ontologies capture in
addition to descriptions of knowledge about the user domain, user intentions that force certain
change scenarios. The proposed model of action-driven ontologies consists of a multi-level
hierarchy, where actions are located at the highest level. They are defined by a set of events, which
execute an existing plan and consist themselves of a group of primitiv operations. A primitiv
operation performs an atomic change in an object, like a change of geometry. Action-driven
ontologies present a way to model entities involved and the aspect of change itself. The abtraction
of the multi-level ontology faciliates the deployment of the concept for various classes of
geographical models.

In the work of Camara et al.[Camara, 2001] the multi-level approach for action-driven ontologies is
adapted to an ontology of images, which should serve to investigate the ontological status of the
information present in remote sensing imgages. They show that neither the object nor the field view
[Camara, 2001] perspective are sufficient to capture the full knowledge representation of image
data. Camara et al. state that images are ontologically instruments for capturing landscape
dynamics and therefore emphasize the search for changes not for content. The presented framework
for the ontology of images draws a clear line between image and user ontology, thus
correspondances are build between both ontologies. This supports multiple perspectives of the same
image corresponding to the respective application domain.

3 Modelling Land Use Change

On the background of the works of Camara et al. [Camara, 2001], we will apply our model on the
basis of the methodology proposed in [Silva] to the bottom-up approach of action-driven ontologies
[Camaral, 2005]. The methodology introduced by Silva builds on the idea of mining patterns of
land use change in large image databases. The approach by INPE enables the extraction of spatial
patterns of deforestation in the Amazon region from remote sensing images. The geometric
structures identified in an image are matched to the application concept of landuse patterns, and
labeled according to a spatial pattern typology that expresses their semantics. The typology is a
description of deforestation patterns, their actors, spatial distribution and clearing size. The results
of the classification obtained can be used to investigate and monitor change of landuse patterns.

The objective of this work is to create a sound semantic description of all occurences. Consequently
creating a framework which supports further reasoning and inference. This implies a solid
foundation for spatial patterns and their emerged changes. Once there is a precise description of
evolution and semantics of the landuse patterns, one could identify coherences and thereby advance
the prediction of future developments.
The origin of our investigations is a sequence of satellite images that present snapshots of the state
of deforestation in the Amazon region. The purpose is to identify the actions that take place
between two snaphots and to discover patterns of evolution. As well as to document the manner in
which objects change and what properties are responsible for particular developments. What were
the geometric changes of an object and how did they affect thematic attributes of a landuse
patterns? Which patterns behave similar? What would be the most likely development of pattern x?

Below we introduce a model that presents the foundation of a semantic framework that should be
capable to handle these questions amongst others. According to the concept of action-driven
ontologies, we propose a multi-level model consisting of operations, actions and processes.
Operations conform to basic geometrical changes of an object. A set of operations form an action.
An action reflects everything that happened within the time span of two consecutive snaphsots. An
ordered series of actions forms a process. The three layers represent the notion of change, and are
applied to capture the development of a single pattern. The framework preserves correspondant to
action-driven ontologies, the lifelines and lifestyles of spatial objects. Hornsby and Egenhofer
define a geospatial lifeline in [Hornsby, Egenhofer] as a time-stamped record of locations, that
models an individual's movement over a certain period of time. The record consists of a triple
containing a unique identifier, a location descriptor and a time stamp. Our model integrates these
parameters in the definitions of the involved entities.

Abbildung 1: 3-Level-Model

4 A Formal Description
We adopt the multi-level hierarchy of action-driven ontologies to the use case of land use patterns,
which are extracted from remote sensing images, with a focus on their geometrical changes. The
core of the model is composed by the spatial objects representing deforestation patterns. To express
the geometry of the patterns we use the idea of a landscape object which is proposed in [Silva]. A
landscape object is a geometric structure detected in a remote sensing image. Each landscape object
is characterized by eight landscape metric attributes, which are based on the software Fragstats
[Fragstats, 2006]. (Perimeter, Area, Perimeter-Area Ratio, Shape Index, Fractal Dimension Index,
Related Circumscribing Circle, Contiguity Index, Radius of Gyration) A detailed description of the
attributes can be found at [Fragstats, 2006]. The expression of the geometric attributes by the
landscape metrics implies, that we can define our own basic operations of change for a spatial
object. In addition to the geometrical changes we define further on two basic operations that
describe the creation and destruction of an object. This leads us to the following operations which
form the bottom layer of our model:

Basic Operations regarding change of:

● Perimeter
 ● Area
● Perimeter-Area Ratio
● Shape Index
● Fractal Dimension Index
● Related Circumscribing Circle
● Contiguity Index
● Radius of Gyration

● Create
● Destroy

Based on the geometric attributes the approach by INPE classifies all patterns detected according to
classes described in the spatial pattern typology. The association of a pattern to an application
domain concept is called a spatial configuration [Silva]. To capture the spatial configuration in the
definition of our spatial objects, we have to store the geometric as well as the thematic attributes in
the definition of the object itself. In addition to that, as formulated in [Hornsby, Egenhofer] we
further specify the two parameters Id , and a time stamp in the form of an interval.

We define a spatial object as a tuple [Id, {Lo}, {Att}, Interval] where <Id> is a unique and invariant
identifier. <{Lo}> is a set of landscape objects that serves to store the geometric attributes, where
each object is a tuple [Lo, Interval] with an interval defining the period where the specific landscape
object of an spatial object is alive. <{Att}> is a set of thematic attributes expressed in the spatial
pattern typology, where each attribute is a tuple [AttName, Value, Interval]. The tuple defines the
attributes Name, Value and Interval, which defines the period in which the value is true for the
respective attribute. <interval> defines the lifetime in which the spatial object is alive as a tuple [ti,
tn], where ti marks the creation and tn the destruction of an object.

The action layer of the hierarchy serves to capture occurences of single actions that represent
change itself. Here, an action is associated to an instance of a spatial object. The action holds all
operations that occured to an object in a specific period of time. An example would be, that all
parameter changes that occured during an alteration process of a pattern are captured.
Consequently, every instance of an action is defined through a set of operations and the specific
instance of an object on which the operations are performed. Furthermore we need a time reference
that indicates the period in which the action was registered and changes occured.
We define an action as a tuple [ActName, Id, {Op}, So, Interval] where <ActName> is a unique
name for the kind of action, <Id> is a unique and invariant identifier for a specific instance, <{Op}>
is the set of operations that make up the action, <So> is the spatial object associated to the specific
action and <Interval> defines the period in which the action took place or is valid. It is defined as a
tuple [ti, tj] where ti and tj are time references of two consecutive images.

Following the idea of a spatio-temporal configuration [Silva], which is a spatial-configuration over

a range of images, a process is defined through an ordered set of actions. A process comprises the
evolution of a single pattern captured in a sequence of images. It represents the highest level of the
model.
We define a process as a tuple [Id, {Actions}, So, Interval], where <Id> is a unique and invariant
identifier and <{Action}> an ordered set of actions. Where the the tuple <Interval> of two
consecutive actions are defined as {[ti, ti +1] < [tj, tj + 1] and ti +1 = tj} <So> is a spatial object
and <Interval> defines the period over which the process evolves. An interval consists of a tuple [ti,
tn], with ti as the time reference of the first image of the process and tn of the last.

Abbildung 2: Process

5 Summary and Conclusion

The proposed conceptual framework concentrates on the semantic description of spatial entities as
well as the entity of change. The multi-level concept of action-driven ontologies [Camara, 2005]
and notions from the image ontology by [Camara, 2001] were adapted to the use case of land use
pattern change.
Having a full description of the process that describes the evolution of a single pattern brings new
possibilities to the interpretation of the change of land use patterns. Comparison of an aggregation
of processes can bring new insights in the overall tendency of change. A formalized representation
would be able to exactly reproduce which pattern classes mainly emerged in a particular year, and
to reflect geometric changes of patterns that are already present. Besides a preliminary
implementation of the thematic features of the spatial patterns using Protégé-OWL [Protégé], the
model has not yet been formalized.

Nevertheless the model presents a highly simplified and abstract view of reality. The case of
deforestation in the Amazon region depends on various influences. A model that would be able to
represent all aspects of pattern evolution has to be extremely adaptable, as factors of change vary
highly when focusing on miscellaneous regions. A central problem constitutes the deduction of
thematic properties from geometric attributes. Accomplishing this will only be a further part of a
mature representation of reality.
6 References:

Camara, G., Monteiro, A.M.V., Paiva, J. and Souza, R.C.M., 2000. Action-Driven Ontologies of the
Geographical Space. In: M.J. Egenhofer and D.M. Mark (Editors), GIScience 2000. AAG,
Savannah, GA.

Câmara, G., et al., What´s In An Image?, in Spatial Information Theory: Foundations of Geographic
Information Science. International Conference, COSIT 2001.

Fonseca, F. , Egenhofer, M., Agouris, P., Camara, G. , 2002

Using Ontologies for Integrated Geoinformation Systems

FRAGSTATS (2006). Spatial Pattern Analysis Program for Categorical Maps.

http://www.umass.edu/landeco/research/fragstats/fragstats.html.

Claramunt,C., Parent,C., Thériault, M., 1997

Design Patterns for Spatio-temporal Processes

Grenona, P., Smith, B. ,

SNAP and SPAN: Towards Dynamic Spatial Ontology

Hornsby, K., Egenhofer, M. ,

Modeling Moving Objects over Multiple Granularities

Protégé-OWL Editor
http://protege.stanford.edu/plugins/owl/

Silva, M.P.S., Camara, G. , Souza, R.C.M, Valeriano, D.M. , Escada, M.I.S. ,

Mining Patterns of Change in Remote Sensing Image Databases

Worboys,M. 2003
Event-oriented approaches to geographic
phenomena

Yao, X., 2003

Research Issues in Spatio-temporal Data Mining