This document discusses vocabularies and vocabulary services for water data. It introduces standards like O&M, WaterML, and QUDT that are used to structure water observation and measurement data. These standards require specific vocabularies for observable properties, instruments, and algorithms. The document recommends structuring vocabularies using models like SKOS and linking them to existing vocabularies such as ChEBI and QUDT. It advocates publishing vocabularies as fine-grained linked data to make them reusable and maintaining a transparent lifecycle to ensure they are trusted. The document provides examples of vocabulary services and notes they should be searchable and allow access to remotely hosted vocabularies.

1. Vocabularies and vocabulary services
for water data
LAND & WATER / WRM / ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATICS
Simon Cox , Jonathan Yu , Dominic Lowe
9 December 2015

2. O&M
OM_Observation
+ phenomenonTime
+ resultTime
+ validTime [0..1]
+ resultQuality [0..*]
+ parameter [0..*]
GF_PropertyType
GFI_Feature
OM_Process Any
+observedProperty
1
0..*
+featureOfInterest 1
0..*
+procedure1 +result
An Observation is an action whose result is an estimate of the value
of some property of the feature-of-interest, obtained using a specified procedure
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
Cox, OGC Abstract Specification – Topic 20: Observations and Measurements 2.0
ISO 19156:2011 Geographic Information – Observations and measurements

3. WaterML 2
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
Taylor, OGC WaterML 2 – Part 1 (Time Series)

4. Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
WaterML-WQ
«FeatureType»
measurement::
OM_Measurement
«FeatureType»
observation::OM_Observation
+ parameter :NamedValue [0..*]
+ phenomenonTime :TM_Object
+ resultQuality :DQ_Element [0..*]
+ resultTime :TM_Instant
+ validTime :TM_Period [0..1]
constraints
{observedProperty shall be a phenomenon associated with the feature of interest}
{procedure shall be suitable for observedProperty}
{result type shall be suitable for observedProperty}
{a parameter.name shall not appear more than once}
Units of Measure::Measure
{root}
+ value :Number
+ convert(UnitOfMeasure*) :Measure
«metaclass»
General Feature Model::
GF_PropertyType
{root}
«FeatureType»
coverageObservation::
OM_DiscreteCoverageObservation
«FeatureType»
Timeseries Observation::
TimeseriesObservation
«FeatureType»
Timeseries (TVP) Observation::
TimeseriesTVPObservation
«Type»
Measurement (TVP) Timeseries::
MeasurementTimeseriesTVP
Timeseries
«FeatureType»
Interleaved (TVP) Timeseries::
TimeseriesTVP
TimeValuePair
«Type»
Measurement (TVP) Timeseries::
MeasureTimeValuePair
+ value :Measure
«FeatureType»
WQ_Measurement::
WQ_Measurement
«FeatureType»
WQ_MeasurementTimeSeriesTVPObservation::
WQ_MeasurementTimeSeriesTVPObservation
«FeatureType»
WQ_MeasurementTimeseriesTVP::
WQ_MeasurementTimeSeriesTVP
«metaclass»
WQ_Observation::
WQ_PropertyType
O&M Classes
WaterML 2 Classes
Water Quality Classes
Legend
+result
+collection
0..*CoverageFunction
+element
0..*
+result
Range
Phenomenon
+observedProperty
1
Cox & Simons, OGC WaterML - WQ

5. Healthy Headwater - NGIS Terms
cas_rn
number
ANGDTS
Code ANGDTS Description Units_used
WDTF
Parameter chemical name
ADWG
name
IUPAC
name Group Ion
EC EC
ease at which conduction current can be
caused to flow through material in
microSiemens/centimetre
us/cm
ms/cm
mg/L
ElectricalConduc
tivityAt25C_uSc
m
Electrical
Conductivity Conductivity
PH pH
negative logarithm of hydrogen ion
concentration in ph units
pH units WaterpH_pH
pH pH
pH, alkalinity,
acidity
16887-
00-6
16887-
00-6
concentration of chloride as Cl in
milligrams/litre
mg/L
mg/kg Chloride Chloride Chloride Anion
TDS TDS
the portion of total solids that passes
through filter and deemed to have been
dissolved in sample in milligrams/litre
mg/L Total Dissolved
Solids
Total
Dissolved
Solids Salinity
TOTALAL
KALINITY
ALKT
concentration in milligrams/litre CaCO3 of
titratable bases using a methyl-orange
endpoint of about pH 4.3
mg/L Total Alkalinity
(as CaCO3)
pH, alkalinity,
acidity
HARDNE
SS_CACO
3
HARD
the ability of water to precipitate soap and
is sum of calcium and magnesium
concentrations as milligrams/litre CaCO3
mg/L Hardness (as
CaCO3)
Hardness
(as calcium
carbonate)
Hardness (as
calcium
carbonate)
SAR SAR
ratio of sodium to magnesium and calcium
and used to assess risk of excess sodium in
irrigation water Ratio
Sodium
Adsorption
Ratio Salinity
3812-32-
6
ALKC
alkalinity ascribed to carbonate in
milligrams/litre CO3
mg/L
%MOL
Carbonate
Alkalinity (as
CaCO3) Carbonate
pH, alkalinity,
acidity
NITRATE
14797-
55-8
concentration of nitrate as N in
milligrams/litre
mg/L
mg/kg Nitrate
Nitrate and
Nitrite
Nitrate and
Nitrite Anion
7439-89-
6
7439-89-
6
concentration of iron as Fe in
milligrams/litre
mg/L
mg/kg
ug/L Iron Iron Metal Cation
collectionalt names hierarchy

6. Are these the same?
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
“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”

7. We are not
alone!
Linked Open Vocabularies
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
http://lov.okfn.org/dataset/lov/

8. Conceptual Model of QUDT
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
http://qudt.org

9. Observable Property extension to QUDT
 QUDT
 WQOP

10. Observable Property extension to QUDT
 QUDT
 WQOP

14. Standard
ontology of
chemicals
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/chebi.owl
>36 000 chemical entities
Well maintained ontology

15. SI
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
Table on a web page

16. Observable Property extension to QUDT
 QUDT
 WQOP

17. Tied to generic vocabulary model - SKOS

18. SKOS: a standard for hierarchical vocabularies
“Simplified Knowledge Organization System”
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
chem:sodium
a skos:Concept ;
rdfs:label "sodium"^^xsd:string ;
skos:broader chem:alkali ;
skos:exactMatch <http://dbpedia.org/resource/Sodium> ;
skos:inScheme skos:chemicals ;
skos:prefLabel "nátrium"@hu , "sodio"@it ,
"sodium"@fr , "sodium"@en .

19. Linked data:
persistent URI = web-scale foreign key

21. Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water

22. Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water

23. Searchable
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
http://def.seegrid.csiro.au/sissvoc/ogc-def/concept?labelcontains=water

24. Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water
http://auscope-services-test.arrc.csiro.au/elda-demo/nerc/concept?labelcontains=water
Search
remotely
hosted
NERC Vocabulary
service
• Key functionality
not provided by
owner

25. Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water

26. Status and lifecycle
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water

27. Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water

28. What have I told you?
• Use of standards (O&M, WaterML)
requires specific vocabularies (observable properties, instruments, algorithms)
• The vocabularies can be structured using existing models (QUDT, SKOS)
and link to existing vocabularies (ChEBI, QUDT, SWEET)
• Publish as fine-grained linked-data to make reusable
• Transparent lifecycle to make trusted
Now: http://registry.it.csiro.au/def/environment
Soon: http://environment.data.gov.au/def
Cox, Yu, Lowe | Vocabularies for water

29. Land and Water
Simon Cox
Research Scientist
t +61 3 9545 2365
e simon.cox@csiro.au
w www.csiro.au
LAND AND WATER
Thank you