Domain Ontology for Construction Knowledge
Tamer E. El-Diraby · Journal of Construction Engineering and Management · 2012
An ontology is a claim on/for knowledge that attempts to model what is known about a domain of discourse. A domain ontology does not aim to exhaustively list all concepts in a domain, but rather to build an abstract (yet extendable) philosophical (yet practical) conceptualization of the essence of knowledge in a domain. At the core of any ontology is an ontological model—an architecture of how the world (in a domain) behaves (or becomes). The ontology categorizes construction knowledge across three main dimensions: concept, modality, and context. Concept encompasses five key terms: entity (further subdivided into generic and secondary), environmental element, abstract concept, attribute, and system (combinations of the previous four types). Modality is a means for generating a variety of types for each of the described concepts. Context allows for linking concepts in a variety of ways—creating different worlds.