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| - Like parts and wholes, the concept of an observation, and specifically a measurement, is a fundamental building block in the eco-ontology. As shown in Figure 8, we define __MeasurementConcept__ to highlight the special status of measurements in the core. In particular, MeasurementConcept is defined as an abstract concept (denoted by the italics type in the figure) that all other measurement definitions fall under. |
| + Like parts and wholes, the concept of an observation, and specifically a measurement, is a fundamental building block in the eco-ontology core. Figure 7 gives a high-level definition of an observation. We introduce the ''MeasurementThing'' concept as a sub-concept of EcoOntThing to highlight the special status of observations in the core. A ''MeasurementThing'' is an abstract concept that all other measurement definitions fall under. |
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| - Observations (and therefore, measurements, which we describe further below) can be grouped into collections through the concept __ObservationCollection__. Observation collections can also be grouped into other collections. We use the abstract concept __ObservationCollectionPart__ to denote the objects that can act as parts in an observation collection object. As shown in Figure 8, we use the part-whole constructs to describe these relationships between observations and observation collections. Note that the cardinality restrictions are not shown because they are implied by the part-whole constructs used. |
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| + Observations can be grouped into collections through the ''ObservationCollection'' composite concept. Observation collections can also be grouped into other collections. We introduce the abstract concept ''ObservationCollectionPart'' to denote the types of objects that can act as parts in an observation collection object. As shown in Figure 8, we use the part-whole relationships to describe the connection between observation collections and their parts. |
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| + We define an observation, as a concept, to be more general than the concept of a measurement. Informally, observation refers to the result of recognizing or noting some fact or occurrence (Websters 1996). In Figure 7, we define the relationship ''itemObserved'' to refer to such an object noted by an observation, which are defined as either properties of some observable entity, or to the existence of an observable entity itself. A measurement goes further by assigning a value to an observed property. |
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| - An observation is a generalization of a measurement. Informally, we define an observation as an assertion of the existence of an entity or of the existence of some property of an entity. A measurement goes further by asserting a value for a property. To illustrate, consider the statement "I saw a tree frog". This statement refers to an observation, in which the existence of a tree frog was observed. The statement "I noticed the tree frog had spots" is also an observation in which the existence of the property "spots" was observed for a tree frog. We say that for this case, the observation asserts there is some value for the property "spots" that was observed, but the value was not provided. Finally, the statement "I noticed the tree frog had ten spots" is a measurement, in which the existence of the value ten is being asserted for the "spots" property of a tree frog. |
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