RDF types and properties for INSPIRE foundation schemas

[jechterhoff]

Description

INSPIRE application schema make use of a number of external foundation schemas, such as EarthResourceML, GeoScienceML, and the standards from ISO TC 211. No sufficiently mature and tested RDF vocabularies exist for these types, which is a problem for any attempt to represent INSPIRE data in RDF at this time.

Without more specific RDF classes that can represent these types, the fall-back for properties using these types in INSPIRE RDF schemas would be rdfs:Class or owl:Class. We propose that in such cases, rdfs:Class should be used as the “fall-back”.

The lack of proven RDF vocabularies for concepts from INSPIRE foundation schemas is a key obstacle for using RDF for INSPIRE data.

It should be noted that some INSPIRE application schemas use types from foundation schemas that are not covered by the rules for application schemas. An example is the use of GM_Boundary in the Environmental Monitoring Facilities application schema. RDF representations may not be necessary for these types if they would be fixed in the INSPIRE schemas to comply with the rules for application schemas.

Also note that some of the foundation schemas like sensors and coverages will be deliverables of the Spatial Data on the Web Working Group of W3C/OGC (https://www.w3.org/2015/spatial/wiki/Main_Page with the deliverables OWL Time Ontology, Semantic Sensor Network Ontology, Coverages in Linked Data). These results should be used, once available, and parallel work should be avoided in the meantime.

Discussion Item

Which vocabularies exist that could be used to implement types from the external foundation schemas in RDF?

[jechterhoff]

The Spatial Data on the Web working group (SDW WG) created a page with information on potential coverage encodings: https://www.w3.org/2015/spatial/wiki/Coverages_in_Linked_Data

The "Semantic Sensor Network Ontology" can be found at https://www.w3.org/TR/vocab-ssn/

For mapping types from ISO 19108, the draft INSPIRE vocabularies use the "Time Ontology in OWL": https://www.w3.org/TR/owl-time/