Ontology for safety risk identification in metro construction

Safety risk identification of metro construction is a knowledge-intensive process involving various stakeholders and communities. Currently, safety risk information related to decision making in metro construction is ill-structurally stored in various disordered formats, which hinders knowledge sharing and reuse. This study develops a domain ontology (SRI-Onto) to formalize safety risk knowledge in metro construction to support safety risk identification. An ontology development method with five steps is adopted. The SRI-Onto organizes safety risk knowledge into seven unified classes (i.e. project, construction activity, risk factor, risk, risk grade, risk consequence, and risk prevention measure). Defined classes, together with corresponding properties and relations, are coded using the Protege platform. Finally, the SRI-Onto is evaluated theoretically and practically, using criteria-based and application-based evaluations respectively. Results indicate that the SRI-Onto possesses the necessary and essential criteria to serve the purpose of knowledge sharing and reuse. Further, the SRI-Onto is predicted to be generally applicable to safety risk identification of metro construction.