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A suite of ontologies for anthropogenic impact accounting

A suite of ontologies for anthropogenic impact accounting

Overview

This suite of four ontologies is a tool for aggregating and consolidating impact accounting data across different standards and vocabularies. It is intended to be generic enough to be used for anthropogenic impact accounting in almost any discipline and context, including climate action impact accounting.

  1. Anthropogenic Impact Accounting Ontology (AIAO). This is the primary ontology and provides a semantic framework for accounting for human impact on environments.

    1. GitHub repo: https://github.com/aiaont

    2. The ontology in HTML: https://aiaont.github.io/aiao/aiao.html

    3. WebVOWL visualisation: https://independentimpact.org/webvowl/#iri=http://w3id.org/aiao

  2. Impact Ontology. An auxiliary ontology for describing how events impact things.

    1. GitHub repo: https://github.com/aiaont/impactont

    2. The ontology in HTML: https://aiaont.github.io/impactont/impactont.html

    3. WebVOWL visualisation: https://independentimpact.org/webvowl/#iri=https://w3id.org/impactont

  3. Claim Ontology. An auxiliary ontology for describing claims and their substantiation. The Claim Ontology provides a formal semantic framework for representing claims, the entities that make them, and the evidence that supports them. It is designed to model defeasible claims (which can be challenged or overturned) as well as the various forms of substantiation that support or refute them.

    1. GitHub repo: https://github.com/aiaont/claimont

    2. The ontology in HTML: https://aiaont.github.io/claimont/claimont.html

    3. WebVOWL visualisation: https://independentimpact.org/webvowl/#iri=https://w3id.org/claimont

  4. Information Communication Ontology. An auxiliary ontology for describing information communication. The Information Communication Ontology (infocomm) provides a foundational semantic framework for describing information communication events. It captures the essential components and relationships involved in any communication process, from simple text messages to complex data transmissions.

    1. GitHub repo: https://github.com/aiaont/infocomm

    2. The ontology in HTML: https://aiaont.github.io/infocomm/infocomm.html

    3. WebVOWL visualisation: https://independentimpact.org/webvowl/#iri=http://w3id.org/infocomm

Why it matters

Standardising the semantics of impact data is a prerequisite for trustworthy, decentralised infrastructure. Without a shared vocabulary, ledgers, analytics and audit tools cannot reason over data in a comparable way. With the AIA suite:

  • platforms can exchange and merge impact data

  • impact evidence can be verified across platforms

  • auditors can follow semantically explicit links from claims to evidence

  • developers can reuse common classes and properties instead of inventing new ones

  • communities can map legacy schemas into a common model rather than replacing them

Getting started with the AIA ontology suite

If you are interested in trying out the ontology suite, here are a few simple steps to help you get started:

  1. Pick a narrow use case relevant to your team (e.g., representing an emissions reduction claim for a single project).

  2. Model it using classes and properties from the AIA suite. Begin by identifying your Agents, Activities and Environments. Enumerate roles and define the indicators you calculate. Treat methods or protocols as controls on activities.

  3. Preserve stable IDs from your source systems; use IRIs that dereference to documentation where possible.

  4. Serialise your model and take it for a round-trip through your pipeline. JSON-LD is a practical choice for application developers; OWL/Turtle is ideal for ontology work and reasoning.

  5. Add SHACL shapes to assert local constraints (e.g., minimum properties for a reportable activity). Shapes can complement OWL without over-constraining the ontology.

  6. Share feedback, examples, and gaps with the Standards WG to inform the next releases!

Note The ontologies are top-level ontologies. We encourage implementers to develop and/or propose extensions rather than overloading core classes and properties. Domain-specific modules (e.g., water use or biodiversity conservation) can live in separate namespaces while extending AIAO superclasses. This will help to keep the core stable and maximise reuse.

How to contribute

If your team is building climate ledgers, ESG reporting systems, or data exchange frameworks, consider piloting the AIA suite and telling us what works and what does not. We welcome issues, implementations, and mappings from collaborators and interested parties. A practical, community-hardened standard emerges only through real use.