Integrating Agriculture-related Data Provided by Thematic Networks into a High Impact Knowledge Reservoir

Data representation is an issue of increased importance when needing to consider heterogeneous data coming from a range of sources. The challenges related to the efficient storage and management of data of a variety of formats and types are at the core of the EURAKNOS project. More specifically, EURAKNOS aims to collate and allow access to data related to the agricultural production in Europe that is made available by Thematic Networks. In order to attain its goal and make contributions towards the direction of efficiently handling data diversity and heterogeneity, EURAKNOS has undertaken the task of developing an ontology for a unified and homogeneous, formal description of the data disseminated by Thematic Networks. The present book chapter focuses on the presentation of the process followed for the ontology development and the result obtained. In order to frame the context of the work in EURAKNOS, the concept of Thematic Networks is explained and the methodology adopted is detailed. The description of the conceptual modeling – related work is followed by a discussion on the EURAKNOS platform and its architecture. The book chapter concludes by underlining the project’s contributions and limitations, as well as by listing a number of steps to be further taken. The project’s potential impact for the future Thematic Networks and policy implications is also discussed.