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ENVIRONMENT/HABITAT / BIOME_______________________________

BY:

LENA WICKENKAMP

DIVYA RAJESWARI SWAMINATHAN

MUSSIE G. TEWOLDE

CHIMA OGBONNAYA NKWOR

Ifgi Spring School

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CONTENTS_______________________________

INTRODUCTION1. AMBIGUITIES & MODES OF CLASSIFICATION2. RELEVANT OBJECTIVE PRIMITIVES3. PREDICATION CRITERIA4. PARAMETERS OF VARIABILITY5. AXIOMS EXPRESSING RELATIONS TO OTHER

GEOGRAPHIC CONCEPTS CONCLUSION

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INTRODUCTION______________________________________ The presence of vagueness and ambiguity in natural

language concepts present an enormous challenge to computational representation and geographic information.

However, in the contemporary studies on applications of

formal theories of semantic and ontology minimize these vagueness and ambiguity.

Environment/Habitat/Biome are words which are more ambiguous in the normal language concepts.

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AMBIGUOUS DEFINITION __________________________________________

Environment: the totality of surrounding conditions. is our surrounding. range of conditions where an organism thrives.

Habitat: area where a plant or animal naturally live or makes

a living. type of environment in which an organism or group

normally lives or occurs. is the place where a population lives.

Biome: are the major regional groupings of plants and

animals discernible at a global scale. is a group of ecosystems that have similar climates

and communities. Source: Wikipedia

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AMBIGUITIES IN MODES OF CLASSIFICATION

Environment /Habitat/Biome Immediate Env’t – how the env’t (water, rock, forest…)

impact on a particular animal. To what degree is immediate the env’t to impact ...

Affective Env’t – what impacts on the animal (temp, sunlight, soil, air, water, atmosphere). A lot of factors are affective, what exactly …

Local Environment – all surrounding factor both those affecting the organism or not. If the proximity/closeness of the locality is open then it is vague.

Global Environment – the ambiguity here is: where exactly the zone is? polar, equatorial, temperate? Or in deserts, TRF …

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AMBIGUITIES IN MODES OF CLASSIFICATIONCotd …

AMBIGUITIES IN MODES OF CLASSIFICATION

Cotd …

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AMBIGUITIES IN MODES OF CLASSIFICATION _

Environmentt/Habitat/Biome: Global Environment:

(where in the globe? )

Affective Environment: a potential

habitat w where an organism can survive

. Water, forest, soil…? Local Environment: Proximity threshold?

Immediate Env’t - (water, rock, forest…)

impact o on a particular animal.

Cotd …

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RELEVANT OBJECTIVE PRIMITIVES

Environment/Habitat/BiomePhysical measurements What should be the temperature, precipitation,

vegetation type of an environment to be defined as Desert, Tropical, Temperate/moderate at a global and local levels.

Super valuation semantics, the real world is so complex to define with definite primitives, like how big, wet, deep, tall etc. Formal theories, logical concepts, threshold or standpoints.

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RELEVANT OBJECTIVE PRIMITIVE

Cotd …

Super valuation semantics, the real world is so complex to define with definite primitives, like how big, wet, deep, tall etc. Hence, we need application of Semantic Ontology (formal theories, logical concepts, threshold or standpoints)

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Env’t/Habitat/Biome

When and where do we say an area is … spatial and temporal variations…vagueness and ambiguity in mode of classification.

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PREDICATION CRITERIA____________________________________

Physical extent (size) of environment/habitat/Biome change though in space.

How large is a certain env’t … standpoint? Horizontal extent. Vertical altitude,

How to demarcate or explain the borders

Temporal Variability in the Env’t/Habitat/Biome Dynamism: Forest fire, urbanization, natural disaster …

causes change. Temporal changes: instance the Env’t changes through time

PARAMETERS OF VARIABILITY__________________________________________

Variability in terms of climatic conditions of the environment:

Camels can live in a hot environment - up to 400 C. Camels can endure long periods without drinking -

up to 17 days

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm

,...]17___,40_[ thresholddrinkingwithoutdaysthresholdetemperaturC

,...]1750inf_[min_ allraannualR

))]],(),(()([)([ yxNTPPyxTPPytEnvironmenyxlandformx

))]],(),(()([)([ yxNTTPyxTPPytEnvironmenyxlakex

))]],(),(()([)([ yxNTPPyxTPPytEnvironmenyxforestx

))]],(),(()([)([ yxNTPPyxTPPytEnvironmenyxdesertx

AXIOMS EXPRESSING RELATIONS TO OTHER GEOGRAPHIC CONCEPTS___________________________________________

Each landform is part of an environment, either tangential or non-tangential.

Each lake is part of an environment, either tangential or non-tangential.

Each forest is part of an environment, either tangential or non-tangential.

Each desert is part of an environment, either tangential or non-tangential.

CONCLUSION__________________________________________

There’s no threshold for the spatial extend of environment/habitat/biome in terms of square meters

Parameters of variability depend on particular type of environment/habitat/biome, e.g. the camels’ habitat has a high temperature, the polar bears’ habitat has a low temperature

impossible to make general statements about “habitats”

Environments/ habitats/ biomes contain other geographic features described by other concepts

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REFERENCES_____________________________________

crpit.com/confpapers/CRPITV63Kemp.pdf www.meteck.org/files/WSPI06_EcoNiche.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biome http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?

_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7CRV-4SV6PHT-1&_user=2160112&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F2008&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1263264653&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000056461&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2160112&md5=97ecc7e5863009ff194471dbe19bac04

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QUESTIONS________________________________________

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