Ontology (OWL)
Formal class and property definitions for the PDTF semantic model, in OWL/Turtle. Reuses W3C VC, Schema.org, FOAF/ORG, and GeoSPARQL where they fit.
See also: Ontology manual — Physical-Ontology tier
The Physical-Ontology tier of the Ontology manual is the realisation of the OWL work described here. It documents the generator-emitted Turtle artefacts (OWL class definitions, SHACL shapes, SKOS vocabularies) with verbatim Turtle blocks from the source TTLs — the authoritative reference for ontology engineers.
Status
This is a stub for upcoming work. The structure below is what we plan to populate; existing artefacts in source/ that feed it are cited inline.
Approach
- Reuse before invent — Schema.org for Property/Place/Address; W3C VC for Claim/Issuer/Holder/Subject; FOAF/ORG for Person/Organisation; GeoSPARQL for spatial; DCAT for catalog metadata.
- Mint PDTF terms only where existing vocabularies don't fit (UK-specific concepts like leasehold tenure, BASPI material information).
- Stay aligned with PDTF v2.0 spec — which already uses W3C VC as the credential model.
Proposed core classes
| Class | Reuse / mint | Notes |
|---|---|---|
pdtf:Transaction | Mint | The lifecycle entity; root of the data model |
pdtf:Property | Subclass of schema:Place | The physical asset |
pdtf:Participant | Subclass of org:Organization / foaf:Person | Identified by DID |
pdtf:Claim | Subclass of vc:Credential | The atomic verifiable assertion |
pdtf:Document | Subclass of schema:DigitalDocument | Supporting evidence |
pdtf:Form | Mint | A canonical UK property form (BASPI, TA6, ...) as a class of claims |
pdtf:Search | Mint | A search result (CON29R, LLC1, OC1, ...) |
Output
Target file: source/00-deliverables/semantic-models/ontology/pdtf.ttl. Empty folder exists; population pending.
Comments