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| - !2 The Eco-Ontology Core |
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| - !2.1 ''Abstract Properties'' |
| + !2 The Eco-Ontology Core |
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| - Here we descrbe the various fundamental, abstract properties used to define other concepts in the core ontology. |
| + This section describes the fundamental building blocks of the eco-ontology -- called the __eco-ontology core__ (or just "the core"). The core is represented as a single package, and all other ontologies defined within (or that extend) the eco-ontology are built from the core. The purpose of the core is to establish the set of basic semantic constructs that can be used to define more complex ecological concepts and relationships. |
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| - !2.1.1 Part-Whole Relationships |
| + !''Things'' |
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| - The following figure shows the various part-whole relationships. |
| + Every concept in the eco-ontology extends the concept __EcoOntThing__. The name "thing" is often used informally in ontologies to denote the set of all things. Instead of "thing", we use the term __object__, but we retain the convention of using the term "thing" to name the most general concept. Every object in the eco-ontology is thus considered an ecological ontology "thing". Figure 1 below shows the definition of EcoOntThing. As shown, objects can be named using the __hasName__ attribute. Object names are optional (denoted by the '0' in the cardinality restriction '0..*'), and an object may have more than one name (denoted by the '*' in the cardinality restriction '0..*'). |
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| + \\__Fig. 1:__ Definition of the most general eco-ontology concept. |
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| - !2.1.2 Process-Oriented Relationships |
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| - !2.2 ''Observations'' |
| + !''Parts and Wholes'' |
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| - The following figure shows the basic definition of an observation, where itemMeasured is a restricted partOf relationship. |
| + Objects are often described in terms of their structural relationships. One of the most basic structural relationships is the connection between parts and wholes. These part-whole relationships treat one object as the "composite", containing zero or more other objects serving as the "parts". Figure 2 shows the basic constructs used in the core for representing parts and wholes. The concepts __Composite__ and __Part__ are defined as sub-concepts of EcoOntThing. And composites and parts are related through the __hasPart__ and __partOf__ relationships, respectively. |
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| + \\__Fig. 2:__ Basic part-whole concepts and relationships. |
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| + As shown, the hasPart relationship relates a composite object to zero or more parts. Similarly, the partOf relationship relates a part object to its associated composite object. A part object can participate in zero or more composite objects (that is, a part can be shared between containers). |
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| + The part-whole relationship of Figure 2 is defined to be transitive. For example, if a container c contains a part p1, and part p1 is also a container containing a part p2, then c is said to also contain p2 by virtue of transitivity. We can represent this more formally by saying that if {{hasPart(c, p1)}} and {{hasPart(p1, p2)}} is true, then {{hasPart(c, p2)}} is also true. The inverse also holds, that is, if {{partOf(p2, p1}} and {{partOf(p2, c)}} is true, then {{partOf(p2, c)}} is also true. |
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| + !''Observations and Measurements'' |
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| + The following figure shows the basic definition of an observation, where itemMeasured is a restricted partOf relationship. |
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