Representations of Topological Relations Between Simple Regions in Description Logics: From Formalization to Consistency Checking

This paper proposes an operational approach to (1) formalize, in Description Logics (DL), the topological relations between simple regions and (2) automatically check whether a set of relations is consistent. The solution allows for the use of traditional DL reasoners (Pellet, Fact++, etc.) to check the consistency of relations and detect the sources of error. The solution does not require any specific extension of the DL or reasoner. The authors demonstrate how to apply this approach with Protégé and Fact++. Different spatial relations in agricultural and environmental applications are also provided to illustrate the possible uses of our method.