IPBES Ontology

Prepared by Maral Dadvar and Aidin Niamir

Contributors: Dave Thau, Benedict Omare and Renske Gudde

For any inquires please contact aidin.niamir@senckenberg.de

Version: 04 Last Updated: September 23rd, 2024

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10404413

Abstract

The ontology developed for representing intergovernmental reports and the broad topics and information that they cover.

Table of content

1. Introduction

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is the intergovernmental body which assesses the state of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services it provides to society, in response to requests from decision makers. To this end, it produces regular regional, national and global assessment reports in collaborations with many experts, scientists and politicians from a wide range of expertise, nationalities and backgrounds. To our knowledge, there is no existing ontology for representation of intergovernmental reports and the broad topics and information that they cover. To this end, we have created the IPBES ontology as the stepping stone for representing these types of data as LOD and make them accessible for further exploration.

2. Namespace Declarations

This is the list of the namesspaces used in this ontology.

Namespace prefix
Namespace URI

ipbes

foaf

skos

3. The IPBES Ontology Description

The classes and properties used in IPBES ontology are created on the fly based on the information that we encounter and the concepts that we aimed to represent. However, the usage of the properties is consistent and the coined URI’s are stable and unique. Currently our ontology consists of 6 classes, each representing a specific part of the data along with their corresponding attributes.

4. Classes and Attributes

Classes

Report

Class

ipbes.Report

Properties

skos:prefLabel

The label that is preferred to be used for a chapter, sub-chapter, report or person

Skos:altLabel

Alternative writing format or language of the preferred label

ipbes:year

The publication year

ipbes:hasDoi

The DOI number

Chapter

Class

ipbes.Chapter

Properties

skos:prefLabel

The label that is preferred to be used for a chapter, sub-chapter, report or person

ipbes:Report

Link to the class Report of the chapter

ipbes:hasDoi

The DOI number

ipbes:identifier

The identifier of the chapter or sub-chapter or key message in the report

foaf.Person

The list of persons who have a role in this chapter

Sub-chapter

Class

ipbes.SubChapter

Properties

ipbes:identifier

The identifier of the chapter or sub-chapter or key message in the report

ipbes:Chapter

Link to the class Chapter of the sub-chapter

ipbes:Report

Link to the class Report of the sub-chapter

ipbes:KeyMessage

Link to the class KeyMessage for which the sub-chapter has been referred to

ipbes:Reference

Link to the class reference for the citations used in each subchapter

skos:prefLabel

The label that is preferred to be used for a chapter, sub-chapter , report or person

ipbes:hasDescription

The text that further describes the content

Key message

Class

ipbes.KeyMessage

Properties

ipbes:BackgroundMessage

Link to the class BackgroundMessage in which the key message has been referred to

ipbes:identifier

The identifier of the chapter or sub-chapter or key message in the report

ipbes:Report

Link to the class Report of the key message

skos:prefLabel

The label that is preferred to be used for a chapter, sub-chapter, report or person

ipbes:hasDescription

The text that further describes the content

ipbes:Illustration

Link to the class Illustration. Used for mentioned tables, figures or boxes in the sub-message

ipbes:hasEstablishedIncomplete

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasWellestablished

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasUnresolved

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasInconclusive

Level of confidence

Background message

Class

ipbes.BackgroundMessage

Properties

ipbes:SubMessage

Link to the sub-messages used in each background message

ipbes:identifier

The identifier of the chapter or sub-chapter or key message in the report

ipbes:Report

Link to the class Report of the key message

skos:prefLabel

The label that is preferred to be used for a chapter, sub-chapter, report or person

ipbes:hasDescription

The text that further describes the content

ipbes:Illustration

Link to the class Illustration. Used for mentioned tables, figures or boxes in the sub-message

ipbes:hasEstablishedIncomplete

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasWellestablished

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasUnresolved

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasInconclusive

Level of confidence

Sub-message

Class

ipbes.SubMessage

Properties

ipbes:identifier

The identifier of the chapter or sub-chapter or key message in the report

ipbes:hasDescription

The text that further describes the content

ipbes:SubChapter

Link to class SubChapter. Use for subchapters mentioned in the sub-message.

ipbes:Illustration

Link to the class Illustration. Used for mentioned tables, figures or boxes in the sub-message

ipbes:hasEstablishedIncomplete

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasWellestablished

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasUnresolved

Level of confidence

ipbes:hasInconclusive

Level of confidence

Illustration

Class

ipbes.Illustration

Properties

ipbes:identifier

The identifier of the chapter or sub-chapter or key message in the report

skos:prefLabel

The label that is preferred to be used for a chapter, sub-chapter, report or person

ipbes:hasDescription

The text that further describes the content

ipbes:hasDoi

The DOI number

owl:sameAs

Link to other resources such as the zotero repository of the reference

Reference

Class

ipbes.Reference

Properties

ipbes:Chapter

Link to the class Chapter in which the reference has been used

ipbes:Report

Link to the class Report

ipbes:SubChapter

Link to the class SubChapter in which the reference has been used

owl:sameAs

Link to other resources such as the zotero repository of the reference

ipbes:hasDescription

The text that further describes the content

ipbes:hasDoi

The DOI number

Knowledge gap

Class

ipbes.KnowledgeGap

Properties

ipbes:Report

Link to the class Report

ipbes:SubChapter

Link to the class SubChapter in which the knowledge gap was used

ipbes:hasDescription

The text that further describes each knowledge gap that is related to the subchapters mentioned in the text

ipbes:identifier

The identifier of the sub-chapter or illustration mentioned in description

Person

Class

foaf.Person

Properties

foaf:firstName

First name of the person

foaf:lastName

Family name of the person

ipbes:Chapter

Link to the class Chapter in which the person has a role

ipbes:Report

Link to the class Report

skos:prefLabel

The label that is preferred to be used for a chapter, sub-chapter, report or person

owl:sameAs

Link to other resources about the person, such as ORCID

ipbes:country

Country of residence of the person

ipbes:ca

Contributing authors in the stated chapter and report

ipbes:cl

Coordinating lead authors in the stated chapter and report

ipbes:fl

Fellows in the stated chapter and report

ipbes:cs

Co-chairs in the stated chapter and report

ipbes:la

Lead authors in the stated chapter and report

ipbes:re

Review editors in the stated chapter and report

5. References

https://www.w3.org/2009/08/skos-reference/skos.html

http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/

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