The KnowWhereGraph ontology

Cogan Shimizu; Shirly Stephen; Adrita Barua; Ling Cai; Antrea Christou; Kitty Currier; Abhilekha Dalal; Colby K. Fisher; Pascal Hitzler; Krzysztof Janowicz; Wenwen Li; Zilong Liu; Mohammad Saeid Mahdavinejad; Gengchen Mai; Dean Rehberger; Mark Schildhauer; Meilin Shi; Sanaz Saki Norouzi; Yuanyuan Tian; Sizhe Wang; Zhangyu Wang; Joseph Zalewski; Lu Zhou; Rui Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.websem.2024.100842

The KnowWhereGraph ontology

Cogan Shimizu
, Shirly Stephen
, Adrita Barua
, Ling Cai
, Antrea Christou
, Kitty Currier
, Abhilekha Dalal
, Colby K. Fisher
, Pascal Hitzler
, Krzysztof Janowicz
, Wenwen Li
, Zilong Liu
, Mohammad Saeid Mahdavinejad
, Gengchen Mai
, Dean Rehberger
, Mark Schildhauer
, Meilin Shi
, Sanaz Saki Norouzi
, Yuanyuan Tian
, Sizhe Wang

Zhangyu Wang, Joseph Zalewski, Lu Zhou, Rui Zhu

Department of Geography and Regional Research

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Abstract

KnowWhereGraph is one of the largest fully publicly available geospatial knowledge graphs. It includes data from 30 layers on natural hazards (e.g., hurricanes, wildfires), climate variables (e.g., air temperature, precipitation), soil properties, crop and land-cover types, demographics, and human health, various place and region identifiers, among other themes. These have been leveraged through the graph by a variety of applications to address challenges in food security and agricultural supply chains; sustainability related to soil conservation practices and farm labor; and delivery of emergency humanitarian aid following a disaster. In this paper, we introduce the ontology that acts as the schema for KnowWhereGraph. This broad overview provides insight into the requirements and design specifications for the graph and its schema, including the development methodology (modular ontology modeling) and the resources utilized to implement, materialize, and deploy KnowWhereGraph with its end-user interfaces and public query SPARQL endpoint.

Original language	English
Article number	100842
Journal	Journal of Web Semantics
Volume	84
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.websem.2024.100842
Publication status	Published - Jan 2025

Funding

This work was funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant 2033521 A1: KnowWhereGraph: Enriching and Linking Cross-Domain Knowledge Graphs using Spatially-Explicit AI Technologies. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 2 Zero Hunger
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
SDG 13 Climate Action

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

102001 Artificial intelligence

Keywords

Modular ontology modeling
Ontology
Spatially enabled knowledge graphs

Access to Document

10.1016/j.websem.2024.100842Licence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

Shimizu, C., Stephen, S., Barua, A., Cai, L., Christou, A., Currier, K., Dalal, A., Fisher, C. K., Hitzler, P., Janowicz, K., Li, W., Liu, Z., Mahdavinejad, M. S., Mai, G., Rehberger, D., Schildhauer, M., Shi, M., Norouzi, S. S., Tian, Y., ... Zhu, R. (2025). The KnowWhereGraph ontology. Journal of Web Semantics, 84, Article 100842. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.websem.2024.100842

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title = "The KnowWhereGraph ontology",

abstract = "KnowWhereGraph is one of the largest fully publicly available geospatial knowledge graphs. It includes data from 30 layers on natural hazards (e.g., hurricanes, wildfires), climate variables (e.g., air temperature, precipitation), soil properties, crop and land-cover types, demographics, and human health, various place and region identifiers, among other themes. These have been leveraged through the graph by a variety of applications to address challenges in food security and agricultural supply chains; sustainability related to soil conservation practices and farm labor; and delivery of emergency humanitarian aid following a disaster. In this paper, we introduce the ontology that acts as the schema for KnowWhereGraph. This broad overview provides insight into the requirements and design specifications for the graph and its schema, including the development methodology (modular ontology modeling) and the resources utilized to implement, materialize, and deploy KnowWhereGraph with its end-user interfaces and public query SPARQL endpoint.",

keywords = "Modular ontology modeling, Ontology, Spatially enabled knowledge graphs",

author = "Cogan Shimizu and Shirly Stephen and Adrita Barua and Ling Cai and Antrea Christou and Kitty Currier and Abhilekha Dalal and Fisher, \{Colby K.\} and Pascal Hitzler and Krzysztof Janowicz and Wenwen Li and Zilong Liu and Mahdavinejad, \{Mohammad Saeid\} and Gengchen Mai and Dean Rehberger and Mark Schildhauer and Meilin Shi and Norouzi, \{Sanaz Saki\} and Yuanyuan Tian and Sizhe Wang and Zhangyu Wang and Joseph Zalewski and Lu Zhou and Rui Zhu",

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doi = "10.1016/j.websem.2024.100842",

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Shimizu, C, Stephen, S, Barua, A, Cai, L, Christou, A, Currier, K, Dalal, A, Fisher, CK, Hitzler, P, Janowicz, K, Li, W, Liu, Z, Mahdavinejad, MS, Mai, G, Rehberger, D, Schildhauer, M, Shi, M, Norouzi, SS, Tian, Y, Wang, S, Wang, Z, Zalewski, J, Zhou, L & Zhu, R 2025, 'The KnowWhereGraph ontology', Journal of Web Semantics, vol. 84, 100842. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.websem.2024.100842

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T1 - The KnowWhereGraph ontology

AU - Shimizu, Cogan

AU - Stephen, Shirly

AU - Barua, Adrita

AU - Cai, Ling

AU - Christou, Antrea

AU - Currier, Kitty

AU - Dalal, Abhilekha

AU - Fisher, Colby K.

AU - Hitzler, Pascal

AU - Janowicz, Krzysztof

AU - Li, Wenwen

AU - Liu, Zilong

AU - Mahdavinejad, Mohammad Saeid

AU - Mai, Gengchen

AU - Rehberger, Dean

AU - Schildhauer, Mark

AU - Shi, Meilin

AU - Norouzi, Sanaz Saki

AU - Tian, Yuanyuan

AU - Wang, Sizhe

AU - Wang, Zhangyu

AU - Zalewski, Joseph

AU - Zhou, Lu

AU - Zhu, Rui

PY - 2025/1

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AB - KnowWhereGraph is one of the largest fully publicly available geospatial knowledge graphs. It includes data from 30 layers on natural hazards (e.g., hurricanes, wildfires), climate variables (e.g., air temperature, precipitation), soil properties, crop and land-cover types, demographics, and human health, various place and region identifiers, among other themes. These have been leveraged through the graph by a variety of applications to address challenges in food security and agricultural supply chains; sustainability related to soil conservation practices and farm labor; and delivery of emergency humanitarian aid following a disaster. In this paper, we introduce the ontology that acts as the schema for KnowWhereGraph. This broad overview provides insight into the requirements and design specifications for the graph and its schema, including the development methodology (modular ontology modeling) and the resources utilized to implement, materialize, and deploy KnowWhereGraph with its end-user interfaces and public query SPARQL endpoint.

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KW - Ontology

KW - Spatially enabled knowledge graphs

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JO - Journal of Web Semantics

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ER -

The KnowWhereGraph ontology

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this