A register of standardised geographic names as a part of the spatial data infrastructure

1. A register of standardised geographic namesas a part of thespatial data infrastructure Topics • Finland – a multilingual country • Some aspects on the modelling of geographic names • Geographic Names Register (GNR) of NLS Finland • GNR Web Feature Service (WFS) • Fields of application of GNR data and services Teemu Leskinen National Land Survey of Finland ICC 2009, Santiago, Chile, 15–21 November 2009

2. Finland – a multilingual country • 5.3 million inhabitants • 340 000 km² • Finnish and Swedish are the official state languages • Saami languages are official in the four northernmost municipalities • North Saami, Inari Saami, Skolt Saami • Municipality is the basic administrative and linguistic unit • The 348 municipalities by linguistic status 1 January 2009: • 291 monolingual Finnish-speaking • 19 monolingual Swedish-speaking • 19 bilingual Finnish–Swedish • 15 bilingual Swedish–Finnish • 4 multilingual Finnish–Saami

3. Multilingual areas in Finland

4. Helsinki is a bilingual city with a Finnish-speaking majority (Finnish names above Swedish names)

5. Rymättylä (above) is a monolingual Finnish-speaking municipality (Finnish names above Swedish names) and Nagu (Nauvo in Finnish, below) a bilingual municipality with a Swedish-speaking majority (Swedish names above Finnish names)

6. Finnish, North Saami, Inari Saami and Skolt Saami names in Inari municipality

7. Some aspects on the modelling of geographic names • Names as attributes of spatial/topographic objects? • In some cases no problem (e.g. administrative units) • Often the identity, definition, classification, geometry, and other attributes of these objects do not correspond with the named features in the real world • Names of non-modelled features? • Elevations, depressions, islands, coastal land formations, stretches of water bodies or even populated places are seldom modelled as spatial objects • They all are important places referred to by their names in any type of communication • Common approach: separate/integrated names register/database • Names are often subject to (national) standardisation • Names data are often maintained/supervised centrally by e.g. a national names authority • Persistent identifiers can be used to link names data with respective spatial objects • Names data may be accessed directly via standard (e.g. WFS) interfaces • Feature or name oriented model? • A register of named places or a register of place names? • Are names attributes of places or places attributes of names?

8. Geographic Names Register (GNR) of NLS Finland • Goals of development • Feature oriented model • Persistent identifiers for named places and names • Integration with the NLS cartographic data production • Rationale for modelling • Multilingual and multi-names circumstances in Finland • Multi-product and multi-scale production environment of the NLS • Two integrated parts • Place Name Register (PNR) • Map Name Register (MNR)

9. Place Name Register (PNR) • About 800 000 named places and their names • Scale-less, no cartographic information • Designed to handle places with several names • Includes data on named places, e.g. • Type (some 50 feature types; feature type groups) • Location (centre point, mouth for a river) • Place id for e.g. interoperability (SDI) and change-only updates • Includes data on place names, e.g. • Spelling (standardised, unabbreviated, correct capitalisation) • Language and language status information • Place name id for e.g. interoperability (e.g. linguistic purposes) and change-only updates • Includes objects Place and Place name

10. language spelling objecthistory objecthistory featuretype featuretypegroup Place Name Register administrative area SDI and interoperability municipal language status map sheet located in place id place name id object co- ordinates Placename 1 1..* Place

11. Map Name Register (MNR) • Cartographic multi-scale representation of PNR Place names • Includes Map names (occurrences in map) as objects • Map name = cartographic text variables set for a PNR Place name • Position (lower left corner of the text) • Direction (pair of relative co-ordinates (dx,dy)) • Spacing (whether the (dx,dy) also indicates the length of the text) • Bending (polyline of relative co-ordinates (dx,dy)) • Font (e.g. Univers Medium, Univers Bold) • Letter tilt (angle, in degrees) • Text size (graphic size, mm/100) • Text colour (code) • Capitalisation (whether the name is written capitalised in this product) • Nationwide Map Name Registers by product/map series • Maintenance integrated with other spatial/map data production in respective scales: • 1:25 000 (800 000 names, completed) –1:1 million • 1:100 000 (200 000 names, completed) –1:2 million • 1:250 000 (65 000 names, completed) –1:4.5 million • 1:500 000

12. spelling objecthistory objecthistory alternative text form featuretype product group product featuretypegroup co-ordinate system Geographic Names Register administrative area SDI and interoperability municipal language status map sheet is located language place id place name id object co- ordinates Placename 1 1..* Place 1 map name id 0..* Mapname cartography name placement typography scale class

13. SDI and interoperability • Place(named feature) • - object co-ordinates (mouth for a river) • feature type (river) • place id ”A river flowing into the Gulf of Finland in Helsinki” A river • Place name(s) • spelling (Vantaa, Vanda å) • language (Finnish, Swedish) • place id, place name id Vantaa Vanda å • Map namesby product • selection of names • possible repeated • occurrences • unique position, direction, • spacing and bending • unique typography • place name id, map name id Vanda å Vantaa Vanda å Vantaa Vantaa Vanda å Vantaa Vantaa Vanda å Vanda å Large    Small Scale V a n t a a V a n d a å

14. GNR Web Feature Service (WFS) products 1 1..* Place Place name • Place Name Register XML schemas • A feature oriented WFS profile (Place as the GML Feature Member) • A name oriented WFS profile (Place name as the GML Feature Member) • Map Name Register XML schema (Map name as the GML Feature Member) Place name 1 0..* Parallel name Place Map name Place name Place

15. Fields of application of GNR data and services • Standardisation • Clear and consistent use of accurate geographic names in any type of communication • National and international SDI and related projects • Interoperability based on e.g. identifiers • Finnish SDI, EuroGeoNames, INSPIRE, UNGEGN World Geographical Names Database • Search • Finding places and names by using their attributes • Geocoding and geoparsing, geoindexing • Map browsing applications, gazetteer services • Automatic positioning and navigation • Visualisation • Map production, viewing services • Research • Onomastic research, historical research, archaeology, genealogy etc. • Semantic web applications • Cultural heritage promotion • Safeguarding of the cultural heritage related to geographic names

16. THANK YOU!