Domain Taxonomy for Construction Concepts: Toward a Formal Ontology for Construction Knowledge

Abstract

With the advancement of the semantic web, the construction industry is at a stage where intelligent knowledge management systems can be used. Such systems support more effective collaboration, where virtual teams of skilled users, not software, exchange ideas, decisions, and best practice. To achieve that, there is a need to create consistent semantic representation of construction knowledge. Existing representations, in the form of classification systems and product data models, lack effective modeling of concept semantics—a fundamental requirement for human-based exchange of knowledge. Toward this objective, this paper presents a domain taxonomy that was developed as part of the e-COGNOS project. The taxonomy was developed as a first step in the establishment of domain ontology for construction. The taxonomy was developed to be process-centered and to allow for utilization of already existing classification systems (BS6100, Master Format, and UniClass, for example). The taxonomy uses seven major domains to classify construction concepts: Process, Product, Project, Actor, Resource, Technical Topics, and Systems. The taxonomy was developed and validated through extensive interaction with domain experts. The taxonomy was used to develop a prototype ontology for the construction domain including semantic relationships and axioms. The ontology was used to support several applications in semantic knowledge management as part of the e-COGNOS portal, including semantic indexing and retrieval of information and ontology-based collaborative project development.