1 ENVIRONMENT/HABITAT / BIOME _______________________________ BY: LENA WICKENKAMP DIVYA RAJESWARI SWAMINATHAN MUSSIE G. TEWOLDE CHIMA OGBONNAYA NKWOR Ifgi Spring School

2 CONTENTS _______________________________ INTRODUCTION 1. AMBIGUITIES & MODES OF CLASSIFICATION 2. RELEVANT OBJECTIVE PRIMITIVES 3. PREDICATION CRITERIA 4. PARAMETERS OF VARIABILITY 5. AXIOMS EXPRESSING RELATIONS TO OTHER GEOGRAPHIC CONCEPTS CONCLUSION

3 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.

4 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

5 AMBIGUITIES IN MODES OF CLASSIFICATION Environment /Habitat/Biome Immediate Envt – how the envt (water, rock, forest…) impact on a particular animal. To what degree is immediate the envt to impact... Affective Envt – 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 … _________________________________________________________

6 AMBIGUITIES IN MODES OF CLASSIFICATION Cotd …

AMBIGUITIES IN MODES OF CLASSIFICATION Cotd …

8 AMBIGUITIES IN MODES OF CLASSIFICATION _ Environmentt/Habitat/Biome: Global Environment : (where in the globe? ) Affective Environment: a p otential habitat w where an organism can survive. Water, forest, soil…? Local Environment : Proximity threshold? Immediate Envt - (water, rock, forest…) impact o on a particular animal. Cotd …

9 RELEVANT OBJECTIVE PRIMITIVES Environment/Habitat/Biome Physical 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.

10 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)

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

12 PREDICATION CRITERIA ____________________________________ Physical extent (size) of environment/habitat/Biome change though in space. How large is a certain envt … standpoint? Horizontal extent. Vertical altitude, How to demarcate or explain the borders Temporal Variability in the Envt/Habitat/Biome Dynamism : Forest fire, urbanization, natural disaster …causes change. Temporal changes : instance the Envt changes through time

PARAMETERS OF VARIABILITY __________________________________________ Variability in terms of climatic conditions of the environment: Camels can live in a hot environment - up to 40 0 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

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 __________________________________________ Theres 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

16 REFERENCES _____________________________________ crpit.com/confpapers/CRPITV63Kemp.pdf RV-4SV6PHT- 1&_user= &_coverDate=09%2F30%2F2008&_rdoc=1&_fm t=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStr Id= &_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C &_versi on=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid= &md5=97ecc7e ff dbe19bac04

17 QUESTIONS ________________________________________

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