Finding semi-automatically a greatest common model thanks to formal concept analysis

Abstract

Data integration and knowledge capitalization combine data and information coming from different data sources designed by different experts having different purposes. In this paper, we propose to assist the underlying model merging activity. For close models made by experts of various specialities on the same system, we partially automate the identification of a Greatest Common Model (GCM) which is composed of the common concepts (core-concepts) of the different models. Our methodology is based on Formal Concept Analysis which is a method of data analysis based on lattice theory. A decision tree allows to semiautomatically classify concepts from the concept lattices and assist the GCM extraction. We apply our approach on the EIS-Pesticide project, an environmental information system which aims at centralizing knowledge and information produced by different research teams.