Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
INSPIRE. Place name or toponym is defined by United Nations Group of
Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) as proper noun applied to a
portion of the surface of the Earth or of any other planet or satellite that
has recognizable identity (
Kadmon 2002
). INSPIRE is defining geo-
graphical name as proper noun applied to real world entities (INSPIRE
2009). If we limit our observations on the Earth (e.g. geographical names),
as INSPIRE is doing, the fundamental difference is that UNGEGN is de-
fining named place as the portion of the surface of Earth that has recogniz-
able identity, and INSPIRE is defining named place as real world entity.
These differences can cause different interpretations of formal representa-
tion of named places in a universe of discourse and difference in definition
of conceptual model.
2- United nations group of experts on geographical names
Because inconsistency of geographical names on topographic maps,
United Nations (UN) recognized importance of standardization of geo-
graphical names soon after UN was founded after the 2nd World war. UN
established
United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names
(UNGEGN)
as one of seven permanent expert's body of the
United Nations
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
(UNGEGN 2010). One of the
main goals of the UNGEGN is to stimulate national and international stan-
dardization of geographical names, supporting national standardization
efforts, promotion of national standardization efforts and adoption of unique
writing system. UNGEGN is supporting national standardizations of the
geographical names trough national boards for standardization of the geo-
graphical names and by recognizing administrative processes. Croatia is
member of the
East Central and South-East Europe Division
(ECSEED)
of the UNGEGN (see
Fig. 1
). UNGEGN is global body and it is divided in
23 linguistic/geographic Divisions. Function of the Divisions is to join
experts with similar linguistic/geographic backgrounds and in that way to
go deeply in the problem of standardization of geographical names.
