A FARM ONTOLOGY FOR FARM MODELING

A clear understanding of all terms needed to describe a domain is key to develop a multi-actor modelling action in a specific domain. The specification of terms and concepts is achieved via the development of an ontology. In general, an ontology is an agreement about a conceptualisation, which is the output of the study of the categories of things that exist or may exist in a specific domain (Sowa, 1997). More specifically, when terms are used in a certain context it must be clear to all the parties involved (from users to system analysts and software engineers) wha t concept is being referred to. Modelling farming systems presents several challenges, starting from the interdisciplinary effort required. The development of an ontology, that is, the definition of a shared understanding of the aspects relevant to a farm enterprise, is then a prerequisite for farming systems analysis. The objective of this paper is to present a Farm Ontology (FO), as part of the SIPEAA Project (Donatelli et al., 2002), a multidisciplinary effort to provide methods and computer tools set for agro-ecological modelling at farm level. Material and methods This work is derived from a more general Enterprise Ontology (EO, Uschold et al., 1998), which is a collection of terms and definitions relevant to business enterprises. Besides the domain bein