Coordinate Observation

• CURIE: gmeow:CoordinateObservation
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/CoordinateObservation
• Category: class
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/places
• Box roles: TBox role (What is this?)

A spatial measurement that assigns geographic coordinates or geometry to a place. Reifies the act of coordinate assignment so that multiple surveys (GPS 2023, LiDAR 2024) coexist as standpoint-indexed observations (Principle 9), each carrying its own reference frame, confidence, and temporal scope. Neither observation is 'the' coordinates. Superseded surveys are suppressed via gmeow:displayable false, never deleted (Principle 10).

Structure

Subclass of: gmeow:SpatialMeasurement

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:CoordinateObservation as a specialized kind of gmeow:SpatialMeasurement. Add statement metadata or a standpoint when the assertion needs provenance, confidence, or vantage.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Located Place

• Source: slices/core/places/examples/located-place.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-places-examples-located-place

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: places as first-class located things, not address strings
#. A containment hierarchy (country ⊃ region ⊃ city ⊃ site) carries
# placeType, gazetteer coreference (authorityLink + skos:exactMatch, never
# owl:sameAs — P5), and coordinates two ways: the flat gmeow:hasCoordinates for
# the 80% case, and a reified gmeow:CoordinateObservation that makes the Principle
# 11 reference frame EXPLICIT (a latitude is meaningless without the frame it is
# expressed in) and carries the measurement's vantage, method, and confidence.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/places/> .
@prefix wd:    <http://www.wikidata.org/entity/> .
@prefix skos:  <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd:   <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .

ex:officeGpsFix a gmeow:CoordinateObservation ;
    gmeow:coordinateObservationOf ex:officeSite ;
    gmeow:vantage ex:surveyTeam ;
    gmeow:observationMethod gmeow:methodGPS ;
    gmeow:coordinateResult ex:officeCoords ;
    gmeow:hasReferenceFrame gmeow:referenceFrameWGS84 ;
    gmeow:confidence 0.95 ;
    gmeow:assertedAt "2026-03-10T00:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:SpatialMeasurement

Projects To

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: crmarc, geo, iso19156, sosa

Linkages

Generated from the canonical mapping DSL. SSSOM files are the generated public interchange form for term equivalences.

Term Equivalences

Projection Coverage

Usage Advice

Use when

• Use to reify a survey that assigned coordinates or geometry to a place, so multiple surveys (GPS 2023, LiDAR 2024) coexist as standpoint-indexed observations.

Avoid when

• Avoid collapsing competing surveys into one 'the' coordinate (none is privileged, Principle 9) and avoid deleting a superseded survey — suppress it with gmeow:displayable false (Principle 10).

How to use

• Mint CoordinateObservation, set gmeow:coordinateObservationOf, point gmeow:coordinateResult / gmeow:geometryResult at the value, and declare gmeow:hasReferenceFrame plus method/confidence.

Examples

• ex:obs2023 a gmeow:CoordinateObservation; gmeow:coordinateObservationOf ex:edinburgh; gmeow:coordinateResult ex:pt; gmeow:hasReferenceFrame gmeow:referenceFrameWGS84.

Use For Consumers

• gmeow:consumerInternalArchive
• gmeow:consumerResearchQueue

Avoid For Consumers

• gmeow:consumerPublicSite