From unstructured texts to semantic story maps. Issue 1 (31st December 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bartalesi, Valentina; Coro, Gianpaolo; Lenzi, Emanuele; Pagano, Pasquale; Pratelli, Nicolò
• Is Part Of: International journal of digital earth. Volume 16:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 234
• Page End: 250
• Publication Date: 2023-12-31
• Subjects: Story maps -- semantic web -- ontology -- natural language processing -- narratives -- e-infrastructures -- virtual research environments; Geographic information systems -- Periodicals; Sustainable development -- Information technology -- Periodicals; Social planning -- Information technology -- Periodicals; 910.285
• DOI: 10.1080/17538947.2023.2168774
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1753-8947

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Digital maps greatly support storytelling about territories, especially when enriched with data describing cultural, societal, and ecological aspects, conveying emotional messages that describe the territory as a whole. Story maps are interactive online digital narratives that can describe a territory beyond its map by enriching the map with text, pictures, videos, and other multimedia information. This paper presents a semi-automatic workflow to produce story maps from textual documents containing territory data. An expert first assembles one territory-contextual document containing text and images. Then, automatic processes use natural language processing and Wikidata services to (i) extract key concepts (entities) and geospatial coordinates associated with the territory, (ii) assemble a logically-ordered sequence of enriched story-map events, and (iii) openly publish online story maps and an interoperable Linked Open Data semantic knowledge base for event exploration and inter-story correlation analyses. Our workflow uses an Open Science-oriented methodology to publish all processes and data. Through our workflow, we produced story maps for the value chains and territories of 23 rural European areas of 16 countries. Through numerical evaluation, we demonstrated that territory experts considered the story maps effective in describing their territories, and appropriate for communicating with citizens and stakeholders.