Title: Enriching environmental software model interfaces through ontology-based tools

Authors: Ioannis N. Athanasiadis, Andrea-Emilio Rizzoli, Marcello Donatelli, Laura Carlini

Addresses: Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA), USI-SUPSI, Galleria 2, CH-6928 Manno, Lugano, Switzerland. ' Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IDSIA), USI-SUPSI, Galleria 2, CH-6928 Manno, Lugano, Switzerland. ' Research Institute for Industrial Crop, Italian Agriculture Research Council, Via di Corticella 133, 40129 Bologna, Italy; IPSC MARS-AGRI4CAST, Joint Research Centre – European Commission, 21027 Ispra (VA), Italy. ' TSE S.r.l. Ingegneria e Impianti, Via G. Galilei, 18 50021 Barberino Val d'Elsa (FI), Italy

Abstract: Common practice has proven that software implementations of environmental models are seldom reused by broader communities or in different modelling frameworks. One of the reasons for this situation is the poor semantics of model interfaces. Model interfaces embrace a critical amount of the modelers| knowledge, but their software implementations can be considered as |poor reflections| of modelers| perceptions, as they fail to represent the complexity of model assumptions in software terms. This paper addresses the problem by adopting an ontology-driven approach that aims to enrich software model interfaces with advanced semantics.

Keywords: knowledge-based software engineering; software component integration; software component reuse; declarative modelling; environmental informatics; environmental software; environmental models; advanced semantics; model interfaces; ontology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASS.2011.042205

International Journal of Applied Systemic Studies, 2011 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.94 - 105

Accepted: 30 Mar 2010
Published online: 29 Apr 2015 *

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