Semantics-based image retrieval research comes forth for filling the gap between images' low level vision features and users' high level semantics

and image's semantic description and extraction are its crucial problems.An approach of GIS semantics-based remote sensing image retrieval is proposed.This approach mainly includes two parts: the description of spatial features' semantics and semantic matching.Object-oriented GIS semantic model and conceptual semantic network are simultaneously applied to describe the spatial features' semantics.A semantic mediator is designed to process the semantic contradiction between user and system.The system will execute a group of atomic queries to get relevant results.Assembled through Boolean calculation

these results will afterward lead to vector GIS retrieval results.Based on vector query results

by reading the remote sensing image data which have the same coordinate frame with GIS data from areas determined by the minimum exterior rectangle obtained as the union of all vector polygons

final GISSBIR retrieval results shall be produced.This approach is applied to retrieve high resolution remote sensing image database

and the results are satisfied.