Social-Ecological SystemS Integrated ONtology (SESsION)

• Authors: Greta Adamo, Ph.D.; Max Willis, Ph.D.

• License: CC-BY v4.0

  About SESsION

SESsION is the ontology derived from the conceptual integration of multiple social-ecological system paradigms beginning with the ecosystem services (ESs) cascade [4] and the social-ecological system framework (SESF) [4].

Although the integration of ESs cascade and SESF is not complete, this ontology represents a first implementation following two prior publications at the Research Challenges in Information Science explaining the frameworks integrations and related ontological analysis [1,2]. The ontological analysis were performed following mainly the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) [5], the Descriptive Ontology for Linguistic and Cognitive Engineering (DOLCE) [6], and additional literature as references. For more detail please consult [1,2]. A picture of the SESs integrated model is captured in the file (https://github.com/gretaAd/session/blob/main/SESs_integration.pdf) found in this repository.

SESsION is aligned with gUFO (the lightweight version of UFO: https://purl.org/nemo/gufo) and references DOLCE+DnS Ultralite (a simplified version of DOLCE: http://www.ontologydesignpatterns.org/ont/dul/DUL.owl). Several additional foundational concepts were added based on UFO [5], particularly UFO-C, and DOLCE cognate literature.

The ESs cascade elements included are:

• Ecosystem Service;
• Ecosystem Structure;
• Ecosystem Function (in SESsION redesigned as Functional Role);
• Commitment-Based Service (newly introduced entity to complement natural Ecosystem Service);
• Value (in SESsION redesigned using the Relator Value Acription following UFO);
• Benefit.

The SESF elements included are:

• Resource;
• Actor;
• Resource System;
• Governance;
• ActionSituation.

Why SESsION?

This ontology has been created to facilitate interoperability and compatibility of social-ecological systems studies, and to support data collection and interpretation for participatory sense-making workshops with stakeholders.

SESsION participatory events

• 18th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS 2024): SESsION workshop (https://humanfactorsinsemantics.net/RCIS2024.html)

References

1. Adamo, G., & Willis, M. (2022, May). Conceptual Integration for Social-Ecological Systems: An Ontological Approach. In International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (pp. 321-337). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
2. Adamo, G., & Willis, M. (2023, May). The Omnipresent Role of Technology in Social-Ecological Systems: Ontological Discussion and Updated Integrated Framework. In International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (pp. 87-102). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
3. Potschin, M., Haines-Young, R., et al.: Defining and measuring ecosystem services. In: Routledge Handbook of Ecosystem Services, pp. 25–44 (2016).
4. McGinnis, M. D., & Ostrom, E. (2014). Social-ecological system framework: initial changes and continuing challenges. Ecology and society, 19(2).
5. Guizzardi, G., de Almeida Falbo, R., & Guizzardi, R. S. (2008, February). Grounding software domain ontologies in the unified foundational ontology (ufo): the case of the ode software process ontology. In CIbSE (pp. 127-140).
6. Borgo, S., Ferrario, R., Gangemi, A., Guarino, N., Masolo, C., Porello, D., ... & Vieu, L. (2022). DOLCE: A descriptive ontology for linguistic and cognitive engineering. Applied ontology, 17(1), 45-69.