Semantic Modeling in Farming Systems Research - The Case of the Agricultural Management Definition Module

Ioannis N. Athanasiadis, Sander Janssen, David Huber, Andrea Emilio Rizzoli, Martin K. van Ittersum

Abstract: Farming Systems Research studies agricultural systems and their interaction with the natural environment and ecosystems. Agroecosystems are highly complex due to the many feedbacks between natural processes, high geographical diversity and human factors involved both as the farmer’s decisions at farm household level and as the policy implementations at regional, national or European levels. This paper presents a novel approach for developing an Agricultural Management Definition Module (AMDM), by exploiting ontologies and semantic modeling. Specifically, a declarative approach has been utilized for conceptualizing farming systems and the management alternatives of a farm household. This conceptual model has been implemented as an ontology that ultimately has been used as the basis for software development and integration. This paper presents in detail the methodology used for developing AMDM and a real-world installation, part of the SEAMLESS integrated project.