Ontology in the AEC Industry

Sponsored by the Computing and Information Technology Division of ASCE

The use of ontology as a shared conceptualization has the potential to be a solution to represent and manage information. However, problems with reconciliation of the concepts into an ontology standard and with representation of expressiveness and reasoning significantly hinder the construction of well-founded and tractable ontologies for use in dynamic, complex, real-world contexts.

Ontology in the AEC Industry contains 10 chapters, contributed by international researchers, that provide an overview of recent advances in ontology research in the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) domain that focuses on enabling information exchange, sharing, and integration and on facilitating users’ understanding of the semantics of information in any project activity involving information management.

Topics include: management of semantically expressive information; foundational-driven practical ontologies; relating context to ontology; evaluation methods and metrics of AEC domain ontologies; and issues of validation and collaboration.

Researchers and students in civil engineering, construction management, and computer science will find this publication a valuable resource.