GEOCHANGE

The GeoChange projects goal is to develop and distribute a software designed for any producer or user of geographic divisions (into regions, departments, municipalities or districts for instance) facing the problem of evolution of these data over time.

GeoChange creates knowledge graphs describing territorial changes, using a specific algorithm developed by the Geochange team. This algorithm computes the similarities between two versions of a geographic division and describes the detected changes using tags such as "fusion" or "merge".

GeoChange automates the creation of catalogs that list territorial change descriptions. It is a decision-making tool that allows experts, professionals or elected officials to visualize and better take into account the evolution of territories over time. GeoChange may also be used in order to inform citizens about past policies and assist them in their upcoming projects.

A prototype has been developed and successfully tested on several datasets from official statistical agencies of the European Commission, Switzerland and Australia. Expressions of interest in the approach are coming from the OGC and local authorities.

GeoChange enables professionals, citizens or computer programs to consult catalogs of changes that occurred in various geographic divisions along time, such as cadastral boundaries, land use, land cover, electoral boundaries (evolution of American districts, for instance), administrative boundaries (municipalities, school districts, ...).