1. The handling of
Border Crossing Features
within the EuroGeoNames names service
Roman Stani-Fertl

2. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
Contents
1. What is a border crossing feature?
2. Structure of the EuroGeoNames
names service
3. Linkage of variant name forms to a
geographic feature
4. The example of River Drava / Drau /
Dráva
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 2

3. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
What is a border crossing feature?
• Feature crossing a country border
results in more than one dataset in the EGN-CS
• Feature crossing a language border
• horizontal – language communities are territorially separated (e.g. Belgium)
• vertical– more than one language community is in control over that feature (e.g.
Brussels)
may result in more than one name form
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 3

4. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
Consequences of border crossing features
name variant
XA_def name
variant abc
dataset
name variant
country XA
XA_efd
border name variant
name variant dataset
crossing bca
XB_fde country XB feature
name variant dataset name
XC_ghi country XC variant cba
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 4

5. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
The structure of the EuroGeoNames names service
AT - CZ - DE - NL - EE - ... - Local
Local Local Local Local Local database
database database database database database
EGN – Reference
EVN-DB User
Central Application
Service
• EGN: EuroGeoNames
• EVN-DB: Database of exonyms and other variant names
April 2010 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 5

6. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
Border Crossing Features and Toponyms
data set
endonym XA_def EVN–DB
country XA endonym XA_efd
name variant
XX_abc
border data set name variant
crossing endonym XB_fde
country XB XX_bcd
feature
name variant
XX_abc
data set
country XC
endonym XC_ghi
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 6

7. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus

8. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
Border Crossing Features and Toponyms
data set
endonym XA_def EVN–DB
country XA endonym XA_efd
name variant
XX_abc
border data set name variant
crossing endonym XB_fde
country XB XX_bcd
feature
name variant
XX_abc
data set
country XC
endonym XC_ghi
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 8

9. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
The river Drava as an example
• for a country border
• and language border
crossing feature
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 9

10. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
The river Drava as an example
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 10

11. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
Features information
11

12. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
Linkage of exonyms with features
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 12

13. Co-funded by the
Community programme
eContentplus
Summary
Two types of border crossing features
• result in multiple datasets for one specific geographical feature
• linked by unique identifiers
• either by NMCAs or in the database of exonyms and other variant
names.
28-Nov-11 R. Stani-Fertl – Border Crossing Features 13