Geological Federal Institute (GBA) — Thesaurus

The Thesaurus contains terms used in the text publications and geological maps of the Federal Institute. All terms have their own http web addresses, which can be used as hyperlinks for online texts, in web applications, or as attributes to geodata. Each single term can also have several alternative names, and is defined in its meaning (semantics) by parent, subordinate, and related terms. In terms of content, the Thesaurus is supervised by its own editorial team, with specialist experts on various topics. The existing topics are constantly being expanded, and in addition to German, they are also widely available in English. The terms of the thesaurus are also machine-readable (XML, RDF, SKOS) and are published with other terms published on the web (i.e. Wikipedia, GeoSciML, Freebase). The Thesaurus can be freely used and complies with the standards of the Semantic Web or LinkedOpenData. For web programmers, there is also a SPARQL endpoint and a REST interface to the thesaurus. By creating semantic and technically interoperable spatial data, the Geologische Bundesanstalt implements the legal obligations of EU Directive 2007/2/EC INSPIRE and the GeoDIG GeoDIG. The data of the Federal Institute are attributed to Thesaurus terms, while the thesaurus is linked simultaneously to INSPIRE terminology and other internationally standardised vocabulary.