A Core Ontological Model for Semantic Sensor Web Infrastructures (original) (raw)

Ontology-Based Integration of Sensor Web Services in Disaster Management

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2009

With the specifications defined through the Sensor Web Enablement initiative of the Open Geospatial Consortium, flexible integration of sensor data is becoming a reality. Challenges remain in the discovery of appropriate sensor information and in the real-time fusion of this information. This is important, in particular, in disaster management, where the flow of information is overwhelming and sensor data must be easily accessible for non-experts (fire brigade officers). We propose to support, in this context, sensor discovery and fusion by "semantically" annotating sensor services with terms from an ontology. In doing so, we employ several well-known techniques from the GIS and Semantic Web worlds, e.g., for semantic matchmaking and data presentation. The novel contribution of our work is a carefully arranged tool architecture, aimed at providing optimal integration support, while keeping the cost for creating the annotations at bay. We address technical details regarding the interaction and functionality of the components, and the design of the required ontology. Based on the architecture, after minimal off-line effort, on-line discovery and integration of sensor data is no more difficult than using standard GIS applications.

A semantic infrastructure for a Knowledge Driven Sensor Web

Sensor Web researchers are currently investigating middleware to aid in the dynamic discovery, integration and analysis of vast quantities of high quality, but distributed and heterogeneous earth observation data. Key challenges being investigated include dynamic data integration and analysis, service discovery and semantic interoperability. However, few efforts deal with the management of both knowledge and system dynamism. Two emerging technologies that have shown promise in dealing with these issues are ontologies and software agents. This paper introduces the idea and identifies key requirements for a Knowledge Driven Sensor Web and presents our efforts towards developing an associated semantic infrastructure within the Sensor Web Agent Platform.

Implementing the draft W3C semantic sensor network ontology

2010 8th IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PERCOM Workshops), 2010

This paper examines the feasibility of using ontologies to model generic sensor networks, based on the capabilities of the current generation of ontology tools. The creation of such an ontology, the current tool's capacity to adequately maintain it, and its potential functionality, as part of a larger semantic system are addressed here. These topics were addressed by constructing a generic

Ontology for flood management: A proposal

2012

Floods are very complex phenomena involving a large number of players. In this context not only the hydrologic and hydraulic studies are required, but also those related to vulnerability assessment, town and emergency planning as well as all the matters related to the economic issues: damage, insurance and the psychological diseases which can arise after flood events. Thus, people with widely different roles, backgrounds, and profiles are in charge of each phase of a large number of complex procedures. Not surprisingly, communication problems often arise because different names may be used to refer to the same concepts. Moreover, relevant information can vary, depending on the user. Effective communication is essential since the results produced by a person in a certain phase of the process can be the input that another person needs in the next phase, i.e. raw data versus elaborated data, forecasting versus impact evaluation, level of detail, hazard assessment, vulnerability assessment, economic evaluation, environmental assessment, etc. Ontologies, which can be defined as an explicit representation of a conceptualization, are tools that can be used to solve such very complex and interdisciplinary problems because they specify a conceptual framework or terminology. The paper introduces an ontology for floods. This ontology is developed using the existing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) ontology and it is represented with OWL-DL (Web Ontology Language-Description Logics). Among the different causes for flood, only those related to river overflows are taken into account in the ontology so far. It is shown as ontologies are useful Flood Recovery Innovation and Response III 3

An Ontology for a Hydro-Meteorological Observation Network

2011

The importance of meteorological and hydrological data observation stations has grown substantially in recent years to meet the most diverse demands; ranging from environmental studies related to climate change and hydrological studies for water use, up to traditional monitoring work to prevent disasters through the use of forecast models of weather and water level control to contain the flow of rivers. The effort by governmental institutions, with support from the private sector expanded the network of observation stations in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. However, access to such data is still restricted to few technical people or to a group of users that access a web information system tailored for them. This paper presents the steps for developing a prototype of an ontology which serves to facilitate data access for web users not familiar with either specific concepts or the domain terminology. The goal for building the prototype is to understand the steps and implications using two complementary tools such as OntoKEM and Protégé for ontology construction.

Five challenges for the Semantic Sensor Web

Semantic Web, 2010

The combination of sensor networks with the Web, web services and database technologies, was named some years ago as the Sensor Web or the Sensor Internet. Most efforts in this area focused on the provision of platforms that could be used to build sensor-based applications more efficiently, considering some of the most important challenges in sensor-based data management and sensor network configuration. The introduction of semantics into these platforms provides the opportunity of going a step forward into the understanding, management and use of sensor-based data sources, and this is a topic being explored by ongoing initiatives. In this paper we go through some of the most relevant challenges of the current Sensor Web, and describe some ongoing work and open opportunities for the introduction of semantics in this context.

Ontology-based technologies for disaster preparedness, response and recovery

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022

Natural disasters such as forest fires, earthquakes, floods and heat waves have a tremendous impact on the economy, the environment and the people. Every year, manmade and natural disasters lead to human and property losses and resettlement, the disintegration of infrastructures and degradation of society's resilience. The key role in the efficient management of such a crisis is information and knowledge management. The fusion of heterogeneous information, sensors and data processing is the stepping stone for every system architecture. This paper proposes the use of ontology-based technologies for disaster preparedness, response and recovery to ensure effectiveness. Innovative semantic structures that have been used in relevant EU projects are explored and adapted in the respective framework.

The SSN Ontology of the W3C Semantic Sensor Network Incubator Group

2012

The W3C Semantic Sensor Network Incubator group (the SSN-XG) produced an OWL 2 ontology to describe sensors and observations -the SSN ontology, available at http://purl.oclc.org/NET/ssnx/ssn. The SSN ontology can describe sensors in terms of capabilities, measurement processes, observations and deployments. This article describes the SSN ontology. It further gives an example and describes the use of the ontology in recent research projects.