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{{Short description|Type of dictionary}}
The geopolitical ontology provides a new mechanism to describe, manage, exchange geopolitical information. It provides validated geopolitical information up to the current year. It covers names in [[FAO]] languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Spanish and Russian) for all territories and groups as well as mappings among all available coding systems: ISO2, ISO3, [[AGROVOC]], FAOSTAT, FAOTERM, GAUL, [[UN]], and [[UNDP]] codes. In addition the ontology tracks historical changes from 1985 up until today; provides geolocations (geographical coordinates); implements relationships among countries and countries or countries and groups including has border with, is predecessor of, is successor of, is administered by, has member, and is in Group.
The '''FAO geopolitical ontology''' is an [[Ontology (information science)|ontology]] developed by the [[FAO|Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)]] to describe, manage and exchange data related to [[geopolitics|geopolitical]] entities such as countries, territories, regions and other similar areas.


==Definitions and examples==
==Background ==
An [[ontology (information science)|ontology]] is a kind of dictionary that describes information in a certain domain using concepts and relationships. It is often implemented using [[Web Ontology Language|OWL]] (Web Ontology Language), an [[XML]]-based standard language that can be interpreted by computers.


* A ''Concept'' is defined as abstract knowledge. For example, in the geopolitical ontology a [[United Nations list of non-self-governing territories|non-self-governing territory]] and a [[geographical region|geographical group]] are concepts. Concepts are explicitly implemented in the ontology with individuals and classes:
Many people working with geopolitical information are looking to find the most current and up-to-date information in a fast and efficient manner. In reality, however, researchers end up spending a considerable amount of time searching through websites and documents to find the required information. A lot of time is also spent checking that data retrieved is not outdated or incorrect. Finally, when users want to apply this geopolitical information into their own systems or to share it with other experts they need to do some manual or automatic modification to process the data into suitable forms that will allow their systems to share/exchange easily. A new geopolitical ontology could provide a way to satisfy their needs.
** An ''individual'' is defined as an object perceived from the real world. In the geopolitical domain [[Ethiopia]] and the [[least developed countries]] group are individuals.
** A ''class'' is defined as a set of individuals sharing common properties. In the geopolitical domain, [[Ethiopia]], [[Republic of Korea]] and [[Italy]] are individuals of the class ''self-governing'' territory; and [[least developed countries]] is an individual of the class ''special group''.
* Relationships between concepts are explicitly implemented by:
** ''[[Object (computer science)|Object]] properties'' between individuals of two classes. For example, ''has member'' and ''is in group'' properties, as shown in Figure 1.
** ''[[Datatype]] properties'' between individuals and literals or [[XML]] datatypes. For example, the individual [[Afghanistan]] has the datatype property ''CodeISO3'' with the value "AFG".
** ''Restrictions'' in classes and/or properties. For example, the property ''official English name'' of the class ''self-governing'' territory has been restricted to have only ''one'' value, this means that a self-governing territory (or country) can only have one internationally recognized official English name.<ref>Official names of countries from [http://www.fao.org/faoterm/nocs/pages/homeNocs.jsp?members=allC&lang=en&lang2=en FAO terminology database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425183754/http://www.fao.org/faoterm/nocs/pages/homeNocs.jsp?members=allC&lang=en&lang2=en |date=2009-04-25 }}</ref>


[[Image:Concepts November 19 2008 v 2.png|thumb|600px|center|Figure 1. An example of concepts and relationship in the geopolitical ontology.]]


The advantage of describing information in an ontology is that it enables to acquire [[domain knowledge]] by defining hierarchical structures of classes, adding individuals, setting object properties and datatype properties, and assigning restrictions.
== Geopolitical ontology ==
[[Image:Concepts November 19 2008 v 2.png||thumb|300px|left|Figure 1. An example of concepts and relationship in the geopolitical ontology.]]


==FAO ontology==
Geopolitical ontology is an ontology which describes geopolitical information using [[concept]]s and their relationships in a given domain. '''Ontology''' is a kind of dictionary that describes information in a certain domain written in a [[XML]]-based standard language ([[Web Ontology Language| OWL]]- Web Ontology Language) understood by not only human, but also by machine. The power of '''description information''' in ontology is that it enables to hold a domain knowledge to an ontology by defining [[concept]]s and relationships among concepts. The advantage of '''XML-based language''' is that it provides a way to communicate with other systems without special effort such as data modification or conversion. The abiliy of '''machine processing''' supports deduction of new information from given information. Geopolitical ontology was born receiving those characteristics from ontology.
The geopolitical ontology provides names in seven languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Spanish, Russian and Italian) and identifiers in various international coding systems ([[ISO 3166-1 alpha-2|ISO2]], [[ISO 3166-1 alpha-3|ISO3]], [[AGROVOC]], [[Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database|FAOSTAT]], FAOTERM,<ref>{{cite web| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219154825/http://www.fao.org/faoterm/index.asp?lang=en | archive-date=2009-02-19 | url=http://www.fao.org/faoterm/index.asp?lang=en | title=FAO TERMINOLOGY}}</ref> [[Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL)|GAUL]], [[UN]], [[List of UNDP country codes|UNDP]] and [[DBPedia]]ID codes) for territories and groups. Moreover, the [[FAO]] geopolitical ontology tracks historical changes from 1985 up until today;<ref>Country or area code changes since 1982: [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49chang.htm United Nations Statistics Division - country or area codes added or changed]</ref> provides [[geolocation]] (geographical coordinates); implements relationships among [[countries]] and countries, or countries and groups, including properties such as ''has border with'', ''is predecessor of'', ''is successor of'', ''is administered by'', ''has members'', and ''is in group''; and disseminates country statistics including country area, land area, agricultural area, [[GDP]] or [[population]].


The FAO geopolitical ontology provides a structured description of data sources. This includes: source name, source identifier, source creator and source's update date. Concepts are described using the [[Dublin Core]] vocabulary<ref>{{cite web| url=http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description | title=DCMI Metadata Terms | date=20 January 2020 | access-date=2024-03-02}}</ref>
* '''Concept''' as abstracted knowledge is explicitly implemented by '''individuals''' and '''classes''' in the geopolitical ontology. Individual is defined as an object perceived from the real world in geopolitical domain (i.e. “[http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index.asp?lang=en&ISO3=ETH| Ethiopia]“, and “least developed countries”).
Class is defined as a set of individuals sharing their common properties. For example, as shown in [[media:Concepts November 19 2008 v 1.png| Figure 1]], Ethiopia, an object from the real world, is defined as an individual. Common properties from individuals (Ethiopia, Republic of Korea, Italy and so on) were captured by defining a class called "self-governing". So, in Figure 1, the left pink circle illustrates the class "self-governing" and "Ethiopia" is an individual contained by the class "Self-governing". The right green circle presents the class "group" and "least developed countries" is an individual included in the class "group".
* '''Relationships''' between concepts is explicitly implemented by '''object properties''' between individuals of two classes such as "has member" and "is in group", as shown in Figure 1 and by '''data type properties''' between individuals of classes and literals and [[XML]] datatypes.


In summary, the main objectives of the FAO geopolitical ontology are:
== Objectives ==
* To provide the most current and valid geopolitical information to users
* To support and track historical change of geopolitical information
* To improve management and facilitate standardized data sharing of geopolitical information
* To demonstrate the benefits of the geopolitical ontology to improve interoperability of corporate information systems


* To provide the most updated geopolitical information (names, codes, relationships, statistics)
==Features==
* To track historical changes in geopolitical information
* To improve information management and facilitate standardized [[data sharing]] of geopolitical information
* To demonstrate the benefits of the geopolitical ontology to improve [[interoperability]] of [[corporate]] [[information systems]]


It is possible to '''download''' the FAO geopolitical ontology in OWL<ref>{{cite web| url=http://aims.fao.org/geopolitical.owl | title=OWL ontology | format=XML | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150413083723/http://aims.fao.org/geopolitical.owl | archive-date=2015-04-13}}</ref> and RDF<ref name="rdf">{{cite web|url=http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/resource/ | title=FAO Geopolitical ontology (RDF) | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407021227/http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/resource/ | archive-date=2018-04-07}}</ref> formats. Documentation is available in the [[FAO Country Profiles]] Geopolitical information web page.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo.asp?lang=en | title=Geopolitical ontology | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413203614/https://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/en/?lang=en | archive-date=2016-04-13}}</ref>

==Features of the FAO ontology==
The geopolitical ontology contains :
The geopolitical ontology contains :


*Area types:<ref>When an area (territory or group) changed but kept the same name, the ontology differentiates the two areas by sub-fixing the name of the obsolete one with the year (e.g. “FAO 2006”). The year indicates the beginning of validity of that particular area.</ref>
*Area types<sup>1</sup>:
**Territories: [[List of sovereign states|self-governing]], [[United Nations list of non-self-governing territories|non-self-governing]], [[Disputed area|disputed]], other.<ref>The area type ''Other'' is used for [[Antarctica]] which has no government and belongs to no country. See also [[Antarctica#Politics|Politics in Antarctica]].</ref>
**Territories: self-governing, non-self-governing, disputed, other
**Groups: [[organizations]], [[subregion|geographic]], [[economic union|economic]] and special groups.<ref>Special groups term is used for non-economical or greographical territory groups like the [[Small Island Developing States]], [[Landlocked countries|Land Locked Countries]], Low Income Food Deficit Countries, [[Least Developed Countries]], etc.</ref>
**Groups: geographic, economic, organizations, special groups
*Names <ref>UN official names: [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/uncsgnreports.htm Reports of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090130040044/http://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/uncsgnreports.htm |date=2009-01-30 }}</ref> (official, short and names for lists) in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian and Italian.

*International codes: UN code – M49, [[ISO 3166]] Alpha-2 and Alpha-3, [[List of UNDP country codes|UNDP code]], [[Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL)|GAUL]] code, FAOSTAT, [[AGROVOC]] FAOTERM and [[DBPedia]]ID.
*Names (official, short and names for lists) in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian
*Coordinates: maximum [[latitude]], minimum [[latitude]], maximum [[longitude]], minimum [[longitude]].
*International codes: UN code – M49, ISO-3166 Alpha-2 and Alpha-3, UNDP code, GAUL code, FAOSTAT, AGROVOC and FAOTERM
*Basic country statistics: country area, land area, agricultural area, GDP, population.
*Coordinates: maximum latitude, minimum latitude, maximum longitude, minimum longitude
*Currency names and codes.

*Adjectives of nationality.
*Relations:
*Relations:
**Groups membership
**Groups membership.
**Neighbours (land [[border]]), administration of [[United Nations list of non-self-governing territories|non-self-governing]].
**Neighbours
**Historic changes: predecessor, successor, valid since,<ref>The value of the datatype property "validSince" is the first year of validity of a territory or group. The geopolitical ontology traces back historic changes only until 1985. Therefore if an area has a validSince = 1985, this indicates that the area is valid at least since 1985.</ref> valid until.<ref>The value of the datatype property "validUntil" is the last year of validity of the territory or group. In case the area is currently valid, this value is set by default to 9999.</ref>
**Historic changes: predecessor, successor, valid since<sup>2</sup>, valid until<sup>3</sup>


==Implementation into OWL==
The [[FAO]] geopolitical ontology is implemented in [[Web Ontology Language|OWL]]. It consists of classes, properties, individuals and restrictions. Table 1 shows all classes, gives a brief description and lists some individuals that belong to each class. Note that the current version of the geopolitical ontology does not provide individuals of the class "disputed" territories. Table 2 and Table 3 illustrate datatype properties and object properties.


== Geopolitical ontology in Linked Open Data ==
<sup>1</sup> In cases where an area (territory or group) changed in time but kept the name, the ontology differentiates the two areas by sub-fixing the name of the obsolete one with the year (e.g. “FAO 2006”). The year indicates the beginning of validity of that particular area.


The FAO Geopolitical ontology is embracing the W3C [[Linked Open Data]] (LOD) initiative<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://linkeddata.org/ |title=Linked Data &#124; Linked Data - Connect Distributed Data across the Web |access-date=2011-07-08 |archive-date=2020-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205064936/http://linkeddata.org/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and released its [[Resource Description Framework|RDF]] version of the geopolitical ontology in March 2011.
<sup>2</sup> The value of the datatype property "validSince" gives the starting year of validity of the area (territory or group) it is associated with. The geopolitical ontology traces back historic changes only until 1985. Therefore if an area has a validSince = 1985, this indicates that the area is valid since 1985 or before.
The term 'Linked Open Data' refers to a set of best practices for publishing and connecting structured data on the Web. The key technologies that support Linked Data are URIs, HTTP and RDF.


The RDF version of the geopolitical ontology is compliant with all Linked data principles to be included in the Linked Open Data cloud, as explained in the following.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html | title=Linked Data | first=Tim |last=Berners-Lee | access-date=2024-03-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/ | title=The Linked Open Data Cloud| access-date=2024-03-02}}</ref>
<sup>3</sup> The value of the datatype property "validUntil" gives the last year of validity of the area (territory or group) it is associated with. In case the area is currently valid, this value is set by default to 9999.


==Resolvable http:// URIs ==
== Implementation into [[Web Ontology Language| OWL]] ==
Every resource in the OWL format of the FAO Geopolitical Ontology has a unique URI. Dereferenciation was implemented to allow for three different URIs to be assigned to each resource as follows:
The geopolitical ontology is implemented in [[Web Ontology Language| OWL]] ontology language. It consists of classes, properties, and individual and restrictions of classes and properties. Table 1 shows all classes, gives a brief description and lists some individuals that belong to each class. Note that the current version of the geopolitical ontology does not have any info about "disputed" territory. Table 2 and Table 3 illustrates datatype properties and object property.
* URI identifying the non-information resource
* Information resource with an RDF/XML representation
* Information resource with an HTML representation
In addition the current URIs used for OWL format needed to be kept to allow for backwards compatibility for other systems that are using them. Therefore, the new URIs for the FAO Geopolitical Ontology in LOD were carefully created, using “Cool URIs for Semantic Web” and considering other good practices for URIs, such as DBpedia URIs.


==New URIs==
The URIs of the geopolitical ontology need to be permanent, consequently all transient information, such as year, version, or format was avoided in the definition of the URIs. The new URIs can be accessed<ref name="rdf"/>


For example, for the resource “Italy” the URIs are the following:
[[Image:Class_and_instances_in_the_geopolitical_ontology_v_1.png‎||thumb|667px|center|Table 1. Classes and instances in the geopolitical ontology. ]]
;http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/resource/Italy
: identifies the non-information resource.
;http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/data/Italy
: identifies the resource with an RDF/XML representation.
;http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/page/Italy
:identifies the information resource with an HTML representation.
In addition, “owl:[[sameAs]]” is used to map the new URIs to the OWL representation.


==Dereferencing URIs==
When a non-information resource is looked up without any specific representation format, then the server needs to redirect the request to information resource with an HTML representation.
For example, to retrieve the resource “Italy”,<ref name="resourceItaly">{{cite web| url=http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/resource/Italy | title=Resource: Geopolitical ontology - Italy | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617155722/http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/resource/Italy | archive-date=2017-06-17}}</ref> which is a non-information resource, the server redirects to the HTML page of “Italy”. <ref name="pageItaly">{{cite web| url=http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/page/Italy | title=Unknown}}{{dead link|date=March 2024|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>


==At least 1000 triples in the datasets==
The total number of triple statements in FAO Geopolitical Ontology is 22,495.
[[Image:Datatype_properties_in_the_geopolitical_ontology_v_1.png‎||thumb|667px|center|Table 2. Datatype properties in the geopolitical ontology. ]]
At least 50 links to a dataset already in the current LOD Cloud:
FAO Geopolitical Ontology has 195 links to [http://www.dbpedia.org DBpedia], which is already part of the LOD Cloud.


==Access to the entire dataset==
FAO Geopolitical Ontology provides the entire dataset as a RDF dump.<ref name="dump">{{cite web| url=http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/data | title=FAO Geopolitical data | format=XML| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329104304/http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/data | archive-date=2018-03-29}}</ref>
[[Image:Object_properties_in_the_geopolitical_ontology_v_1.png‎||thumb|674px|center|Table 3. Object properties in the geopolitical ontology. ]]


The RDF version of the FAO Geopolitical Ontology has been already registered in CKAN <ref>{{cite web| url=http://ckan.net/package/fao-geopolitical-ontology | title=FAO geopolitical ontology | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324183931/http://thedatahub.org/dataset/fao-geopolitical-ontology | archive-date=2012-03-24}}</ref> and it was requested to add it into the LOD Cloud.
== Download and documentation ==
The current version (0.7) of the geopolitical ontology can be downloaded from the [http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo.asp FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System (FCPMIS)].


==Example of use==
* download site: http://www.fao.org/aims/geopolitical.owl
[[Image:Geopolitical Ontology in Country Profiles August 12 2009 v 1.png|thumb|200px|right|Figure 3. a website of introducing the geopolitical ontology in FAO Country Profiles.]]
* documentation: http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geopol_v7/index.html


The [[FAO Country Profiles]] is an information retrieval tool which groups the FAO's vast archive of information on its global activities in [[agriculture]] and [[rural development]] in one single area and catalogues it exclusively by country.
== FAO disclaimer ==
The designations employed and the presentation of material do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.


The [[FAO Country Profiles]] system provides access to country-based heterogeneous data sources.<ref>[http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/resources.asp Inventory of data sources used in the FAO country profiles] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090925011534/http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/resources.asp |date=2009-09-25 }}</ref> By using the geopolitical ontology in the system, the following benefits are expected:<ref>[http://semanticweb.com/integrating-country-based-heterogeneous-data-at-the-united-nations-fao-s-geopolitical-ontology-and-services_b10681 Integrating country-based heterogeneous data at the United Nations: FAO's geopolitical ontology and services.]{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Case study ==
[[Image:Geopolitical_ontology_in_Country_Profiles_December_5_2008_v_1.png||thumb|200px|right|Figure 2. a website of introducing the geopolitical ontology in FAO Country Profiles.]]


* Enhanced system functionality for content aggregation and synchronization from the multiple source repositories.
The [http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/ FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System (FCPMIS)] is a web-based multilingual information portal presenting FAO’s vast archive of knowledge on food and agriculture, categorizing by country and thematic area. FCPMIS provides users around the world access to country-based information without searching heterogonous data sources. In May 2008, FAO launched a project to upgrade FCPMIS. The project aims to enhance users' access to country information and to increase collaboration between FAO and partners in other organizations. FAO is involved in the development and dissemination of international standards and procedures for agricultural information management. FAO promotes the sharing of new knowledge/technology into agricultural information management. Applying the geopolitical ontology to FCPMIS is one major tasks to make successful the upgrade in this system. The following three benefits are expected during the implementation of the geopolitical ontology into FCPMIS.
* Improved information access and browsing through comparison of data in neighbor countries and groups.


Figure 3 shows a page in the [[FAO Country Profiles]] where the geopolitical ontology is described.
* The geopolitical ontology provides validated and the latest international standards for geopolitical information and a new mechanism to manage and exchange geopolitical information.
* The geopolitical ontology enhances content aggregation and synchronization from multiple source repositories in FCPMIS.
* The geopolitical ontology enables FCPMIS to improve users’ information access and browsing through aggregation and comparison of data in neighbor countries or regions.


==See also==
Figure 2 shows an example of the implementation of the geopolitical ontology into FCPMIS that introduces the geoplitical ontology to users.
*[[Agricultural Information Management Standards]]
*[[AGROVOC]]
*[[Country code]]
*[[FAO Country Profiles]]
*[[Global Administrative Unit Layers (GAUL)|Global Administrative Unit Layers]] (GAUL)
*[[International Organization for Standardization]] (ISO)


==Communities==
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}


==External links==
A group called "[http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=730247&trk=hb_side_g Country Information Exchange in Food and Agriculture]" provides a place for experts and people interested in geopolitical information to get together to discuss issues, share news, and submit questions and provide answers. Currently 30 members participate in this group from Italy, Poland, Netherlands, India, Canada, France, and US. Discussions are going on and cover topics such as:
* {{cite web| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124204645/http://www.slideshare.net/faoaims/faos-geopolitical-ontology-and-services | title=FAO's Geopolitical Ontology and Services (Slides about FAO's geopolitical ontology) | url=http://www.slideshare.net/faoaims/faos-geopolitical-ontology-and-services | archive-date=2011-01-24}}

* {{cite web| url=https://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/en/ | title=FAO Country Profiles | publisher=[[FAO]] | access-date=2024-03-02}}
*Global Irrigation situation for agriculture- fruit and vegetable production
* {{cite web| url=https://www.fao.org/faoterm | title=FAO Terminology] (FAOTERM)}}
*Looking for an expert in Agriculture and Water Usage in MENA + Indian Subcontinent
* {{cite web| url=https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/ | title=FAOSTAT}}
*What international coding systems are used in FAO / or other organizations?
* {{cite web| url=https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/ | title=UN Statistics Division - M49 codes}}

* {{cite web| url=https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html | title=ISO - Maintenance Agency for ISO 3166 country codes}}
==Links==
* {{cite web| url=https://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geopolitical-ontology/download/en/ | title=Geopolitical ontology module maker | publisher=[[FAO]] | access-date=2024-03-02}}
*[[AGROVOC]]
*[[FAOSTAT]]
*[http://www.fao.org/faoterm FAO Terminology] (FAOTERM)
*[[Global_Administrative_Unit_Layers_(GAUL)|Global Administrative Unit Layers]] (GAUL)
*[[International Organization for Standardization]] (ISO)
*[[United Nations Development Programme]] (UNDP)
*[[United Nations Statistics Division]] (UNSD)


{{DEFAULTSORT:Geopolitical Ontology}}
[[Category:Country Information, Ontology, geopolitical information, Knowledge representation]]
[[Category:Ontology (information science)]]
[[Category:Knowledge representation]]
[[Category:Country codes]]
[[Category:Geographic data and information]]

Latest revision as of 22:46, 28 September 2024

The FAO geopolitical ontology is an ontology developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to describe, manage and exchange data related to geopolitical entities such as countries, territories, regions and other similar areas.

Definitions and examples

[edit]

An ontology is a kind of dictionary that describes information in a certain domain using concepts and relationships. It is often implemented using OWL (Web Ontology Language), an XML-based standard language that can be interpreted by computers.

  • A Concept is defined as abstract knowledge. For example, in the geopolitical ontology a non-self-governing territory and a geographical group are concepts. Concepts are explicitly implemented in the ontology with individuals and classes:
  • Relationships between concepts are explicitly implemented by:
    • Object properties between individuals of two classes. For example, has member and is in group properties, as shown in Figure 1.
    • Datatype properties between individuals and literals or XML datatypes. For example, the individual Afghanistan has the datatype property CodeISO3 with the value "AFG".
    • Restrictions in classes and/or properties. For example, the property official English name of the class self-governing territory has been restricted to have only one value, this means that a self-governing territory (or country) can only have one internationally recognized official English name.[1]
Figure 1. An example of concepts and relationship in the geopolitical ontology.

The advantage of describing information in an ontology is that it enables to acquire domain knowledge by defining hierarchical structures of classes, adding individuals, setting object properties and datatype properties, and assigning restrictions.

FAO ontology

[edit]

The geopolitical ontology provides names in seven languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Spanish, Russian and Italian) and identifiers in various international coding systems (ISO2, ISO3, AGROVOC, FAOSTAT, FAOTERM,[2] GAUL, UN, UNDP and DBPediaID codes) for territories and groups. Moreover, the FAO geopolitical ontology tracks historical changes from 1985 up until today;[3] provides geolocation (geographical coordinates); implements relationships among countries and countries, or countries and groups, including properties such as has border with, is predecessor of, is successor of, is administered by, has members, and is in group; and disseminates country statistics including country area, land area, agricultural area, GDP or population.

The FAO geopolitical ontology provides a structured description of data sources. This includes: source name, source identifier, source creator and source's update date. Concepts are described using the Dublin Core vocabulary[4]

In summary, the main objectives of the FAO geopolitical ontology are:

  • To provide the most updated geopolitical information (names, codes, relationships, statistics)
  • To track historical changes in geopolitical information
  • To improve information management and facilitate standardized data sharing of geopolitical information
  • To demonstrate the benefits of the geopolitical ontology to improve interoperability of corporate information systems

It is possible to download the FAO geopolitical ontology in OWL[5] and RDF[6] formats. Documentation is available in the FAO Country Profiles Geopolitical information web page.[7]

Features of the FAO ontology

[edit]

The geopolitical ontology contains :

Implementation into OWL

[edit]

The FAO geopolitical ontology is implemented in OWL. It consists of classes, properties, individuals and restrictions. Table 1 shows all classes, gives a brief description and lists some individuals that belong to each class. Note that the current version of the geopolitical ontology does not provide individuals of the class "disputed" territories. Table 2 and Table 3 illustrate datatype properties and object properties.

Geopolitical ontology in Linked Open Data

[edit]

The FAO Geopolitical ontology is embracing the W3C Linked Open Data (LOD) initiative[14] and released its RDF version of the geopolitical ontology in March 2011. The term 'Linked Open Data' refers to a set of best practices for publishing and connecting structured data on the Web. The key technologies that support Linked Data are URIs, HTTP and RDF.

The RDF version of the geopolitical ontology is compliant with all Linked data principles to be included in the Linked Open Data cloud, as explained in the following.[15][16]

Resolvable http:// URIs

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Every resource in the OWL format of the FAO Geopolitical Ontology has a unique URI. Dereferenciation was implemented to allow for three different URIs to be assigned to each resource as follows:

  • URI identifying the non-information resource
  • Information resource with an RDF/XML representation
  • Information resource with an HTML representation

In addition the current URIs used for OWL format needed to be kept to allow for backwards compatibility for other systems that are using them. Therefore, the new URIs for the FAO Geopolitical Ontology in LOD were carefully created, using “Cool URIs for Semantic Web” and considering other good practices for URIs, such as DBpedia URIs.

New URIs

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The URIs of the geopolitical ontology need to be permanent, consequently all transient information, such as year, version, or format was avoided in the definition of the URIs. The new URIs can be accessed[6]

For example, for the resource “Italy” the URIs are the following:

http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/resource/Italy
identifies the non-information resource.
http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/data/Italy
identifies the resource with an RDF/XML representation.
http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/geopolitical/page/Italy
identifies the information resource with an HTML representation.

In addition, “owl:sameAs” is used to map the new URIs to the OWL representation.

Dereferencing URIs

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When a non-information resource is looked up without any specific representation format, then the server needs to redirect the request to information resource with an HTML representation. For example, to retrieve the resource “Italy”,[17] which is a non-information resource, the server redirects to the HTML page of “Italy”. [18]

At least 1000 triples in the datasets

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The total number of triple statements in FAO Geopolitical Ontology is 22,495. At least 50 links to a dataset already in the current LOD Cloud: FAO Geopolitical Ontology has 195 links to DBpedia, which is already part of the LOD Cloud.

Access to the entire dataset

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FAO Geopolitical Ontology provides the entire dataset as a RDF dump.[19]

The RDF version of the FAO Geopolitical Ontology has been already registered in CKAN [20] and it was requested to add it into the LOD Cloud.

Example of use

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Figure 3. a website of introducing the geopolitical ontology in FAO Country Profiles.

The FAO Country Profiles is an information retrieval tool which groups the FAO's vast archive of information on its global activities in agriculture and rural development in one single area and catalogues it exclusively by country.

The FAO Country Profiles system provides access to country-based heterogeneous data sources.[21] By using the geopolitical ontology in the system, the following benefits are expected:[22]

  • Enhanced system functionality for content aggregation and synchronization from the multiple source repositories.
  • Improved information access and browsing through comparison of data in neighbor countries and groups.

Figure 3 shows a page in the FAO Country Profiles where the geopolitical ontology is described.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Official names of countries from FAO terminology database Archived 2009-04-25 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "FAO TERMINOLOGY". Archived from the original on 2009-02-19.
  3. ^ Country or area code changes since 1982: United Nations Statistics Division - country or area codes added or changed
  4. ^ "DCMI Metadata Terms". 20 January 2020. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  5. ^ "OWL ontology". Archived from the original (XML) on 2015-04-13.
  6. ^ a b "FAO Geopolitical ontology (RDF)". Archived from the original on 2018-04-07.
  7. ^ "Geopolitical ontology". Archived from the original on 2016-04-13.
  8. ^ When an area (territory or group) changed but kept the same name, the ontology differentiates the two areas by sub-fixing the name of the obsolete one with the year (e.g. “FAO 2006”). The year indicates the beginning of validity of that particular area.
  9. ^ The area type Other is used for Antarctica which has no government and belongs to no country. See also Politics in Antarctica.
  10. ^ Special groups term is used for non-economical or greographical territory groups like the Small Island Developing States, Land Locked Countries, Low Income Food Deficit Countries, Least Developed Countries, etc.
  11. ^ UN official names: Reports of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names Archived 2009-01-30 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ The value of the datatype property "validSince" is the first year of validity of a territory or group. The geopolitical ontology traces back historic changes only until 1985. Therefore if an area has a validSince = 1985, this indicates that the area is valid at least since 1985.
  13. ^ The value of the datatype property "validUntil" is the last year of validity of the territory or group. In case the area is currently valid, this value is set by default to 9999.
  14. ^ "Linked Data | Linked Data - Connect Distributed Data across the Web". Archived from the original on 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  15. ^ Berners-Lee, Tim. "Linked Data". Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  16. ^ "The Linked Open Data Cloud". Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  17. ^ "Resource: Geopolitical ontology - Italy". Archived from the original on 2017-06-17.
  18. ^ "Unknown".[permanent dead link‍]
  19. ^ "FAO Geopolitical data". Archived from the original (XML) on 2018-03-29.
  20. ^ "FAO geopolitical ontology". Archived from the original on 2012-03-24.
  21. ^ Inventory of data sources used in the FAO country profiles Archived 2009-09-25 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Integrating country-based heterogeneous data at the United Nations: FAO's geopolitical ontology and services.[permanent dead link‍]
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