HR: 0830h
AN: ED41B-1169    [PDF]
TI: Creating A Virtual Fault Database Using Ontologies
AU: * Juve, G
EM: juve@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway SCI 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Francoeur, H
EM: francoeu@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway SCI 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Gordon, L
EM: llgordon@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway SCI 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Jhatakia, S
EM: jhatakia@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway SCI 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Sharma, N
EM: kingnitin@rediffmail.com
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway SCI 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Maechling, P
EM: maechlin@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway SCI 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AU: Jordan, T
EM: tjordan@usc.edu
AF: Southern California Earthquake Center, 3651 Trousdale Parkway SCI 169, Los Angeles, CA 90089 United States
AB: SCEC's Fault Information System (FIS) consists of several databases including SCEC's Fault Activity Database (FAD) and SCEC's Community Fault Model database (CFM). The purpose of the FIS is to provide an interface for obtaining fault data contained in multiple, distributed databases using a single point of access. Constructing such an interface requires the existence of a mapping that links terms used in the databases to their semantic meaning. In this way, terms appearing in different databases, but representing the same data, can be treated as equals from the point of view of the query interface. In this project we explore a system which uses ontologies to provide the necessary database semantics. The system uses two ontologies: one to represent semantics in the domain of fault geology and one to represent relational databases. Using these ontologies a mapping can be created that links entities in the fault database ontologies to their equivalent semantic meanings in the fault domain ontology. An interface can then be constructed using the ontologies to mediate between FIS users and the databases contained within the FIS.
DE: 7200 SEISMOLOGY
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting