Geospatial conceptualisation: A Cross-Cultural Analysis on Portuguese and American Geographical Categorisations

In 2001 David Mark and Barry Smith published a study that aimed to establish how non-expert subjects conceptualise geospatial phenomena in the United States of America. This paper contributes to comparing the results from the study performed by David Mark and Barry Smith with a similar study applied to Portuguese non-expert subjects.

In response to a series of questions, differently phrased, 160 non-expert subjects (university students from several parts of Portugal and various academic areas) were asked to give examples of geographical categories such as “Natural earth formation” or “Something that can be portrayed on a map”. The answers were used to statistically count the most mentioned terms. The Portuguese results were compared with those of the United States.

Although Portuguese results differ slightly in the number of items presented, the most mentioned terms match with the United States results.

We are therefore able to derive that the conceptualisation of geographical entities of Portuguese subjects is similar to that of United States subjects, e.g. Portuguese subjects also refer to mostly physical characteristics such as trees and mountains.

At a time when interoperability and ontological studies gain importance in the Geographical Information Systems/Science, this ongoing initiative points out the need of integrating trans-border geographical conceptualisations.