1. GloSIS: The Global Soil Information System Web Ontology
- Author
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Palma, Raul, Janiak, Bogusz, de Sousa, Luís Moreira, Schleidt, Kathi, Řezník, Tomáš, van Egmond, Fenny, Leenaars, Johan, Moshou, Dimitrios, Mouazen, Abdul, Wilson, Peter, Medyckyj-Scott, David, Ritchie, Alistair, Yigini, Yusuf, and Vargas, Ronald
- Subjects
Computer Science - Information Retrieval - Abstract
Established in 2012 by members of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) is a global network of stakeholders promoting sound land and soil management practices towards a sustainable world food system. However, soil survey largely remains a local or regional activity, bound to heterogeneous methods and conventions. Recognising the relevance of global and trans-national policies towards sustainable land management practices, the GSP elected data harmonisation and exchange as one of its key lines of action. Building upon international standards and previous work towards a global soil data ontology, an improved domain model was eventually developed within the GSP [54], the basis for a Global Soil Information System (GloSIS). This work also identified the Semantic Web as a possible avenue to operationalise the domain model. This article presents the GloSIS web ontology, an implementation of the GloSIS domain model with the Web Ontology Language (OWL). Thoroughly employing a host of Semantic Web standards (SOSA, SKOS, GeoSPARQL, QUDT), GloSIS lays out not only a soil data ontology but also an extensive set of ready-to-use code-lists for soil description and physio-chemical analysis. Various examples are provided on the provision and use of GloSIS-compliant linked data, showcasing the contribution of this ontology to the discovery, exploration, integration and access of soil data.
- Published
- 2024