  We propose an Ontology-Based Information Extraction (OBIE) system to automate
the extraction of the criteria and values applied in Land Use Suitability
Analysis (LUSA) from bylaw and regulation documents related to the geographic
area of interest. The results obtained by our proposed LUSA OBIE system (land
use suitability criteria and their values) are presented as an ontology
populated with instances of the extracted criteria and property values. This
latter output ontology is incorporated into a Multi-Criteria Decision Making
(MCDM) model applied for constructing suitability maps for different kinds of
land uses. The resulting maps may be the final desired product or can be
incorporated into the cellular automata urban modeling and simulation for
predicting future urban growth. A case study has been conducted where the
output from LUSA OBIE is applied to help produce a suitability map for the City
of Regina, Saskatchewan, to assist in the identification of suitable areas for
residential development. A set of Saskatchewan bylaw and regulation documents
were downloaded and input to the LUSA OBIE system. We accessed the extracted
information using both the populated LUSA ontology and the set of annotated
documents. In this regard, the LUSA OBIE system was effective in producing a
final suitability map.
