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I-ADOPT Framework ontology

Release July 11, 2023

This version:
https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/1.0.3
Latest version:
https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/
Previous version:
https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/1.0.2
Authors:
Barbara Magagna, Environment Agency Austria
Sirko Schindler, (Institute of Data Science, German Aerospace Center (DLR))
Maria Stoica, University of Colorado, Boulder
Gwenaelle Moncoiffe, National Oceanography Centre, British Oceanographic Data Centre, UK
Anusuriya Devaraju, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), University of Queensland, Australia
Alison Pamment, National Centre for Atmospheric Science / Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK
Contributors:
John Graybeal, Stanford University, School of Medicine, USA
Robert Huber, University Bremen, Germany
Simon J D Cox, CSIRO Land and Water, Australia
Download serialization:
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License:
http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/cc-by4.0
Visualization:
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Cite as:
Barbara Magagna, Sirko Schindler, Maria Stoica, Gwenaelle Moncoiffe, Anusuriya Devaraju, Alison Pamment, I-ADOPT Framework ontology, Retrieved from: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/1.0.3
Provenance of this page
Ontology Specification Draft

Abstract

The I-ADOPT Framework is an ontology primarily designed to facilitate interoperability between existing variable description models (including ontologies, taxonomy, and structured controlled vocabularies). One of the challenges in representing semantic descriptions of variables is getting people to agree about what they mean when describing the components that define the variables. The I-ADOPT ontology addresses this by providing core components and their relations that can be applied to define machine-interpretable variable descriptions that re-use FAIR vocabulary terms. It was developed by a core group of terminology experts and users from the Research Data Alliance (RDA) InteroperAble Descriptions of Observable Property Terminology (I-ADOPT) Working Group. The first published versions of the ontology up to v0.9.1 satisfied the basic cross-domain interoperability requirements. This new version of the ontology (v1.0) includes exactly the same original components plus an extension which is designed to support the aggregation of variables using a range of user-defined coarser concepts to facilitate dataset discovery and aggregation into products.

Table of contents

Introduction back to ToC

The research community is creating or collecting ever-larger volumes of data to understand phenomena via their observable properties at various scale. Our ability to exploit these data as a common resource is hampered by a lack of interoperability in how we describe the data variable observed or measured. A large collection of independent terminology resources related to variables and tools across research domains and communities has emerged. Their complexity and diversity often overwhelm data managers and users, ironically posing barriers to data interoperability.

Great progress has already been made in providing machine-readable descriptions of sensors and their observation types through the OGC's Sensor Web Enablement SensorML, Observations and Measurements (Cox 2017) or the W3C's/OGC's Semantic Sensor Network (SSN) ontology or its lightweight ontology called SOSA (Sensor, Observation, Sample, and Actuator). However, "deep metadata" that further contextualizes observations (e.g. methodology, variables, parameters) is typically represented as coarsely qualified classes (e.g. "Procedure" or "Observed property"). What exactly falls into these classes is currently unconstrained and could be anything ranging from unstandardized free-text to standardized descriptions accessible via fully resolvable URIs. The Scientific Variables Ontology (Stoica and Peckham 2018, 2019) is one known existing principled ontological framework for decomposing and representing scientific variables in a machine-readable form.

The RDA InteroperAble Descriptions of Observable Property Terminology (I-ADOPT) WG set itself the objective to produce an Interoperability Framework, co-developed through inputs from a diverse community of terminology experts and users, for representing observable properties. This effort has a strong focus on variables observed in environmental research because it leverages existing efforts to accurately encode what was measured, observed, derived, or computed in relation to the Earth systems. But many of the principles it leans on will be relevant to or connected with other domains. The construction of the framework has been informed by a review of current practices used in the community. The working group is also iteratively testing and refining the framework through a set of in-depth use cases. Much like a generic blueprint, the refined conceptual framework will be a basis upon which terminology developers can formulate or refine their local design patterns, in alignment with others. With these, they may leverage their local resources in a collective attempt to represent complex properties observed across the environmental sciences (from marine, atmospheric, and terrestrial Earth sciences, as well as biodiversity).

For more information about I-ADOPT see the I-ADOPT pages on the RDA website. Comments on this version of the ontology (please specify the version number when commenting) can be made by raising issue tickets in this github repository.

I-ADOPT Framework ontology: Overview back to ToC

This ontology has the following classes and properties.

Classes

Object Properties

hasConstraint
hasConstraint
hasMatrix
hasMatrix
0..1
0..1
hasContextObject
hasContextObject
hasObjectOfInterest
hasObjectOfInterest
hasProperty
hasProperty
Variable
Variable
Property
Property
hasMember
hasMember
hasApplicableProperty
hasApplicableProperty
hasApplicableMatrix
hasApplicableMatrix
hasApplicableContextObject
hasApplicableContextObject
hasApplicableObjectOfInterest
hasApplicableObjectOfInterest
VariableSet
VariableSet
Entity
Entity
constrains
constrains
Constraint
Constraint
0..n
0..n
1..1
1..1
1..n
1..n
1..1
1..1
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
0..n
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I-ADOPT Framework ontology: Description back to ToC

The I-ADOPT Framework is an ontology designed to facilitate interoperability between existing variable description models (including ontologies, taxonomy, and structured controlled vocabularies). One of the challenges in representing semantic descriptions of variables is getting people to agree about what they mean when describing the components that define the variables. The I-ADOPT ontology addresses this by providing core components and their relations that can be applied to define machine-interpretable variable descriptions that re-use FAIR vocabulary terms. It was developed by a core group of terminology experts and users from the Research Data Alliance (RDA) InteroperAble Descriptions of Observable Property Terminology (I-ADOPT) Working Group. The first published versions of the ontology up to v0.9.1 satisfied the basic cross-domain interoperability requirements. It defines four classes or "concepts" (Variable, Property, Entity, Constraint), and six object properties (hasProperty, hasObjectOfInterest, hasContextObject, hasMatrix, hasConstraint, constrains). The Variable is the top concept. It represents the description of something observed or mathematically derived. It minimally consists of one entity (the ObjectOfInterest) and its Property; a Property being a type of characteristic (i.e. a quantity or a quality). More complex variables can involve additional entities, for example an entity may have the role of Matrix and/or of ContextObject(s). The framework does not capture units, instruments, methods, and geographical location information; however its usage recommendation will make explicit reference to these by connecting the I-ADOPT framework to existing and complementary ontologies.

This new version of the ontology (v1.0) adds one optional new class (VariableSet) and four optional new object properties (hasApplicableProperty, hasApplicableObjectOfInterest, hasApplicableMatrix, hasApplicableContextObject). This was necessary in order to enable flexibility in assigning optional and user-defined machine-interpretable categorizations of I-ADOPT variables under one or multiple coarser grouping concepts to facilitate dataset discovery and dataset aggregation. With the introduction of these concepts and properties, the framework enables different user communities or product developers to develop their own grouping criteria. While the Variable class must be connected to at least two classes via the mandatory properties hasProperty and hasObjectOIfInterest, the VariableSet class can have either of the new properties. Additionally, the VariableSet class can also be optionally connected to the Variable class using the property ro:hasMember from the OBO Relations Ontology.

Cross reference for I-ADOPT Framework ontology classes, properties and dataproperties back to ToC

This section provides details for each class and property defined by I-ADOPT Framework ontology.

Classes

Constraintc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/Constraint

A Constraint limits the scope of the observation and confines the context to a particular state. It describes properties of the involved entities that are relevant to the particular observation.
is in domain of
constrains op
is in range of
hasConstraint op

Entityc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/Entity

An object or process that has a role in an observation. An Entity may play one of the following roles: ObjectOfInterest, ContextObject, Matrix. Whether the involvement of a particular entity is meaningful enough to include in the variable description depends on the specific context.
is in range of
constrains op, hasApplicableContextObject op, hasApplicableMatrix op, hasApplicableObjectOfInterest op, hasContextObject op, hasMatrix op, hasObjectOfInterest op

Propertyc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/Property

A type of a characteristic of the ObjectOfInterest.
is in range of
hasApplicableProperty op, hasProperty op

Variablec back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/Variable

A description of something observed or derived, minimally consisting of an ObjectOfInterest and its Property.
is equivalent to
hasObjectOfInterest op exactly 1 Entity c
hasProperty op exactly 1 Property c
is in domain of
hasConstraint op, hasContextObject op, hasMatrix op, hasObjectOfInterest op, hasProperty op

VariableSetc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/VariableSet

An aggregation class to group a set of variable for a specific purpose.
is in domain of
hasApplicableContextObject op, hasApplicableMatrix op, hasApplicableObjectOfInterest op, hasApplicableProperty op

Object Properties

constrainsop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/constrains

A Constraint constrains an Entity having a role in the Variable description.
has domain
Constraint c
has range
Entity c

hasApplicableContextObjectop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasApplicableContextObject

A VariableSet has zero or many applicable ContextObjects.
has sub-properties
hasApplicableMatrix op
has domain
VariableSet c
has range
Entity c

hasApplicableMatrixop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasApplicableMatrix

A VariableSet has zero or many applicable Matrices.
has super-properties
hasApplicableContextObject op
has domain
VariableSet c
has range
Entity c

hasApplicableObjectOfInterestop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasApplicableObjectOfInterest

A VariableSet has one or more applicable ObjectOfInterest.
has domain
VariableSet c
has range
Entity c

hasApplicablePropertyop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasApplicableProperty

A VariableSet has one or more applicable Properties.
has domain
VariableSet c
has range
Property c

hasConstraintop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasConstraint

A Variable has a Constraint, that confines an Entity involved in the observation.
has domain
Variable c
has range
Constraint c

hasContextObjectop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasContextObject

A Variable has an Entity that provides additional background information regarding the ObjectOfInterest.
has sub-properties
hasMatrix op
has domain
Variable c
has range
Entity c

hasMatrixop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasMatrix

A Variable might have an Entity in which the ObjectOfInterest is contained.
has super-properties
hasContextObject op
has domain
Variable c
has range
Entity c

hasObjectOfInterestop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasObjectOfInterest

A Variable has an Entity whose Property is observed.
has domain
Variable c
has range
Entity c

hasPropertyop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/iadopt/ont/hasProperty

A Variable has a Property that characterizes an Entity.
has domain
Variable c
has range
Property c

Legend back to ToC

c: Classes
op: Object Properties
dp: Data Properties
ni: Named Individuals

References back to ToC

S. J. D. Cox (2017): Ontology for observations and sampling features, with alignments to existing models, Semantic Web, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 453–470.

Magagna, B., Moncoiffe, G., Stoica, M., Devaraju, A., Pamment, A., Schindler, S., and Huber, R.: The I-ADOPT Interoperability Framework: a proposal for FAIRer observable property descriptions, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13155, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13155, 2021.

Magagna, B., Moncoiffé, G., Devaraju, A., Stoica, M., Schindler, S., Pamment, A., & RDA I-ADOPT WG.: InteroperAble Descriptions of Observable Property Terminologies (I-ADOPT) WG Outputs and Recommendations (1.1.0). https://doi.org/10.15497/RDA00071/2, 2022.

Magagna, B., Moncoiffe, G., Devaraju, A., Stoica, M., Schindler, S. and Pamment, A. (2021) I-ADOPT Framework 1.0.0. In: RDA Virtual Plenary 17. RDA Virtual Plenary 17, 20. - 23.04.2021, virtual.

Magagna, B., Moncoiffe, G., Devaraju, A., Buttigieg, P. L., Stoica, M., and Schindler, S.: Towards an interoperability framework for observable property terminologies, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19895, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19895, 2020.

Magagna, B., Stocker, M. and Diepenbroek, M.: Towards Interoperability for Observed Parameters: Position Statement of an Emerging Working Group, in: Gaikwad, J., König-Ries, B., & Recknagel, F. (Eds). Proceedings of the ‘10th International Conference on Ecological Informatics: translating ecological data into knowledge and decisions in a rapidly changing world’, Jena, Germany, 24-28 September, 2018.

Stoica, M., & Peckham, S. D. (2018). An Ontology Blueprint for Constructing Qualitative and Quantitative Scientific Variables. In International Semantic Web Conference (P&D/Industry/BlueSky).

Stoica, M., & Peckham, S. (2019, September). Incorporating new concepts into the Scientific Variables Ontology. In 2019 15th International Conference on eScience (eScience) (pp. 539-540). IEEE. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/eScience.2019.00073

Stoica, M., & Peckham, S. D. (2019). The Scientific Variables Ontology: A blueprint for custom manual and automated creation and alignment of machine-interpretable qualitative and quantitative variable concepts. In Modeling the World's Systems Conference.

Acknowledgements back to ToC

The authors would like to thank Silvio Peroni for developing LODE, a Live OWL Documentation Environment, which is used for representing the Cross Referencing Section of this document and Daniel Garijo for developing Widoco, the program used to create the template used in this documentation.