Events as entities in ontology-driven conceptual modeling

Abstract

The Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) has been used to provide foundations for the major conceptual modeling constructs. This ontology has led to the OntoUML Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling language, a UML class diagram profile reflecting the ontological micro-theories comprising UFO. So far, the focus of OntoUML has been on the representation of structural aspects of a domain (endurant types and their relations), corresponding to a fragment of UFO dubbed UFO-A. This paper extends OntoUML by addressing the representation of event types, reflecting the UFO-B foundational ontology of events. Based on the ontological distinctions and axiomatization provided by UFO-B, we define new OntoUML constructs and guidelines for the conceptual modeling of events and event relations in structural conceptual models.