TOWARDS A DESCRIPTION LOGIC FOR SCIENTIFIC MODELING

IRD, MEM, University of Fianarantsoa, Fianarantsoa, Madagascarjean-pierre.muller@cirad.fr, hasina.lalaina@gmail.com, dominique.herve@ird.frKeywords: Ontology, metrology, geographic representation, knowledge representation.Abstract: The classical ontologies are based on description logics. Most of the proposed variants fit within the logicalframework but the introduction of data types. This later extension is suitable for computer scientists butnot appropriate for scientists in general. In effect, the scientists, but the mathematicians, use quantities withfull unit systems as defined in metrology. More specifically, the geomaticians do not use only attributed orrelational structures but also what they called coverages, i.e. mappings from coordinates into data. Separateefforts have been made to formalize these aspects but none coped all of them in an integrated knowledgerepresentation framework. The aim of this paper is to propose a description logics extension able to integratethese various aspects into the general framework of knowledge representation, as a way to talk about matterand space. A syntax and semantics are provided.