Toward A Foundational Hydro Ontology For Water Data Interoperability

Hydro ontologies are digital artifacts that contain representations of hydrological entities. They are being constructed to advance interoperability within and between all kinds of water data networks. Increased growth of such networks, however, requires integration of a greater variety of data, which requires a more general and principled approach to hydro ontology. One such approach is the development of a canonical reference ontology. This paper describes recent progress on the development of a reference hydro ontology for both subsurface and surface water data. Identified is a container schema that anchors the ontology, and also described is an initial representation of the ontology.