The document discusses developing a harmonized vocabulary for water quality properties by addressing issues with existing water quality vocabularies which use conflated and inconsistent definitions. It presents an Observable Property ontology that defines terms like substance, matrix, measurement procedure to standardize water quality data. Examples show how the vocabulary can improve data discovery, integration and reuse by linking terms to other vocabularies and representing measurements consistently. The vocabulary is published online and designed to be extensible to other domains.

1. A harmonized vocabulary for water quality
LAND AND WATER FLAGSHIP | OCEANS AND ATMOSPHERE FLAGSHIP
Jonathan Yu | Research engineer
HIC 2014, 17 August 2014

2. Outline
• Context and problem space – multiplicity of representations,
formats, formalisms, publication methods; conflated definitions
• Semantic web, linked data and tools
• Observable properties (OP) ontology
• Harmonized vocabulary for water quality using OP and published
as linked data
• Examples of interoperability using WQ vocabulary

3. Background
• Examples of water quality vocabularies collected during various
projects and activities – BOM, derm, QLD gov, intl
• Example of conflated vocab terms
Presentation title | Presenter name3 |

4. Are these the same? (eReefs data)
Cox, Simons, Yu | Observable property ontology
“nitrogen”
“dissolved nitrogen”
“Total nitrogen, water, filtered, milligrams per liter”
“Concentration of nitrogen (total) per unit volume of the water body [dissolved
plus reactive particulate phase] by oxidation and colorimetric autoanalysis“
“Concentration of nitrogen (total) per unit mass of the water body [dissolved plus
reactive particulate <GF/F phase] by filtration and high temperature Pt catalytic
oxidation”
“Concentration (moles or mass) of total nitrogen (i.e. nitrogen in all chemical
forms) in suspended particulate material per unit volume of the water column.”
“Concentration of nitrogen (total) {'PON'} per unit volume of the water body
[particulate 2-10um phase] by filtration, acidification and elemental analysis”
“Dissolved total and organic nitrogen concentrations in the water column”
4 |

5. How to use these? (NERC Vocab Service)
Cox, Simons, Yu | Observable property ontology5 |
http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P01/current/N601S20Z/
http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P01/current/BCMMCF07/

6. Mix-n-match definitions
Concentration of /
benz(a)anthracene {CAS 56-55-3} /
per unit wet weight of biota /
{Limanda limanda (ITIS: 172881: WoRMS 127139) [Sex: male /
Subcomponent: liver]}
Cox, Simons, Yu | Observable property ontology6 |
Substance | matrix-relationship | context of matrix (taxon) | matrix | method

7. Prior work
• O&M
Presentation title | Presenter name7 |

8. Prior work (2)
• QUDT
Presentation title | Presenter name8 |

9. Prior work (3)
Cox, Simons, Yu | Observable property ontology
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/chebi.owl
>36 000 chemical entities
9 |
• ChEBI

10. Observable property ontology (OP)
Enhancing water quality data service discovery and access using standard vocabularies | Jonathan Yu10 |
http://environment.data.gov.au/water/quality/def/op

11. Water quality vocabulary (example)
Enhancing water quality data service discovery and access using standard vocabularies | Jonathan Yu11 |

12. AGU Fall 2013 | IN52B-08 | Cox, Simons, Yu | Vocabulary re-use
Linked to SKOS

13. Cox, Simons, Yu | Observable property ontology13 |

14. AGU Fall 2013 | IN52B-08 | Cox, Simons, Yu | Vocabulary re-use
How does this relate to O&M?
class O&M_v1_AnnexC_Figure6
«GF_PropertyType»
PropertyType
«GF_PropertyType»
ConstrainedPropertyType
+ otherConstraint :CharacterString [0..*]
+ singleConstraint :Any [0..*]
+base
1
[Scaled]QuantityKind
qudt:generalization
op:constraint
Cox, S. J. D. (ed.) (2007). Observations and Measurements – Part 1 - Observation schema. OGC 07-022r1, Open Geospatial Consortium
Inc.
“Concentration”
“nitrogen” op:featureOfInterest
op:procedure
PropertyKind
op:matrix
op:objectOfInterest

15. Examples of interoperability using WQ vocabulary
• WaterML 2.0-WQ OGC best practice
• eReefs data discovery use case
Presentation title | Presenter name15 |

16. Extensibility
• Ability to extend WQ Vocab with additional terms
• Ability to re-use OP ontology for other domains
• Ability to integrate between vocabularies using OP
• Build and reuse tooling around the vocabulary and vocabulary
services
Presentation title | Presenter name16 |

17. Summary
• Observable property vocabularies should be
• Standardized
• Published
• Extend / re-use existing vocabularies where possible
• Publish it somewhere good
http://environment.data.gov.au/def/property/
http://environment.data.gov.au/def/object/
http://environment.data.gov.au/def/unit/
http://environment.data.gov.au/def/op
http://sissvoc.ereefs.info/search
Cox, Simons, Yu | Observable property ontology17 |

18. Jonathan Yu
Research Software Engineer
Jonathan.Yu@csiro.au
Bruce Simons
SDI Modeller
Bruce.Simons@csiro.au
ADD BUSINESS UNIT/FLAGSHIP NAME
Thank you
Terms of use: Image sources from Wikipedia under CC2.0 licence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amazing_Great_Barrier_Reef_1.jpg
Simon Cox
Research Scientist
Simon.Cox@csiro.au
http://ereefs.org.au/