ABSTRACT: Types of concepts in geoscience ontologies.

CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Abstract

They provide a way of digitally representing the meaning of concepts embedded in the theories and models of geoscience, enabling such representations to be compared and contrasted computationally. This facilitates the discovery, integration and communication of digitally accessible geoscience resources, and potentially helps geoscientists attain new knowledge. As ontologies are typically built to closely reflect some aspect or viewpoint of a domain, recognizing significant ontological patterns within the domain should thus lead to more useful and robust ontologies. A key idea then motivating this work is the notion that geoscience concepts possess an ontological pattern that helps not only structure them, but also aids ontology development in disciplines where concepts are similarly abstracted from geospatial regions, such as in ecology, soil science, etc. Proposed is an ontology structure in which six basic concept types are identified, defined, and organized in increasing levels of abstraction, including a level for general concepts (e.g. 'granite') and a level for concepts specific to a geospace-time region (e.g. 'granites of Ireland'). Discussed will be the six concept types, the proposed structure that organizes them, and several examples from geoscience. Also mentioned will be the significant implementation challenges faced but not addressed by the proposed structure. In general, the proposal prioritizes conceptual granularity over its engineering deficits, but this prioritization remains to be tested in serious applications.

Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology