Ontology for Interoperability

The goal of this chapter is to help readers understand how ontologies can be used to improve interoperability between heterogeneous information systems. We understand interoperability as the ability of an information system or its components to share information and applications. In the literature there is not a common agreement on which types of interoperability can be found between heterogeneous systems, but mainly classifications of the different types of heterogeneity that can be found between systems and the levels or layers where this heterogeneity has to be solved or overcome. However, this is not the purpose of this chapter. We will focus on which types of system interoperability can be resolved by ontologies, and which types of ontologies have been normally used for this purpose. About ontology types, we refer to the first ontology classification presented in the previous chapter (ROUSSEY et al 2010**). Some of the illustrative examples will be taken from project presentations made in the context of the COST UCE Action C21 (Urban Ontologies for an improved communication in UCE projects TOWNTOLOGY) or, in general, in the area of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)