Merging Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Ontologies |
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| Authors: | Nora M El-Gohary Tamer E El-Diraby |
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| Affiliation: | 1Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Newmark Civil Engineering Lab, 205 North Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 (corresponding author). E-mail: gohary@illinois.edu
2Associate Professor and Director, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Center for Information Systems in Infrastructure and Construction, Univ. of Toronto, 35 St. George St., Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A4. E-mail: tamer@ecf.utoronto.ca
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| Abstract: | Ontologies have emerged as a means of facilitating semantic interoperability among computer systems. However, recognizing that no single universally agreed-on ontology can ever be defined for a domain, a tool that allows ontologies to interoperate becomes essential to semantic interoperability. This paper presents an ontology integrator (Onto-Integrator) for facilitating ontology interoperability within the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) domain. The Onto-Integrator offers a heuristic for ontology merging, including the merging of concept taxonomies, relations, and axioms. Unlike existing tools, the integrator addresses ontology merging requirements that are specific to the AEC domain. The integrator heuristic was implemented into a prototype Web-based tool and was evaluated through a focus group. |
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| Keywords: | Project management Construction management Integrated systems Knowledge-based systems Information management |
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