Advances in Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis with ontologies: A review of main contributions and limitations from a remote sensing perspective

Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) represents the most innovative new trend for processing remote sensing images that has appeared during the last decade. However, its application is mainly based on expert knowledge, which consequently highlights important scientific issues with respect to the robustness of the methods applied in GEOBIA. In this paper, we argue that GEOBIA would benefit from another technical enhancement involving knowledge representation techniques such as ontologies. Although the role of ontologies in Geographical Information Sciences (GISciences) is not a new topic, few works have discussed how ontologies, considered from the perspective of a remote sensing specialist, can contribute to advancing remote sensing science. We summarize the main applications of ontologies in GEOBIA, especially for data discovery, automatic image interpretation, data interoperability, workflow management and data publication. Finally, we discuss the major issues related to the construction of ontologies suitable for remote sensing applications and outline long-term future advances that can be expected for the remote sensing community.