Common Elements in Semantic Descriptions of Web Processing Services

Abstract

Web Processing Services (WPS) offer geoprocessing functionalities online. The description of an offered process to date consists of a textual description of the operation, and a specification of input and output parameters. This description is limited in detail and makes search, discovery, and composition of services difficult. Two approaches have been proposed to extend these service descriptions: ontology-based descriptions and WPS profiles, with differing complexity and intended use. This contribution confronts the two approaches, and suggests structured metadata as a linkage between service profiles and ontologies as future work.