On the definition of generic multi-layered ontologies for urban applications

Cooperation of information systems is essential for providing decision support for urban management applications. This involves sharing data across collections of the heterogeneous information systems that are used to manage large urban infrastructures. The objective of this work is to define a spatial ontology to describe key features of urban applications, providing a foundation for semantic reconciliation among heterogeneous spatial information sources. We propose a multi-layered ontologies definition framework consisting of ontology layers which are composed of a generic functional structure and one or more domain ontologies. The functional structure embodies general ontological concepts described as abstract data types. The domain ontologies are created by specializing the properties and constraints of the functional structure. Inter-ontology relationships are defined to integrate information across functional ontological layers and used to query multiple domain ontologies.