Consistent ontologies evolution using graph grammars

Abstract

Ontologies are often used for the meta-modelling of dynamic domains, therefore it is essential to represent and manage their changes and to adapt them to new requirements. Due to changes, an ontology may become invalid and non-interpretable. This paper proposes the use of the graph grammars to formalize and manage ontologies evolution. The objective is to present an a priori approach of inconsistencies resolutions to adapt the ontologies and preserve their consistency. A framework composed of different graph rewriting rules is proposed and presented using the AGG (Algebraic Graph Grammar) tool. As an application, the article considers the EventCCAlps ontology developed within the CCAlps European project. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.