Ontological Engineering for Methodological Support of Research into Energy-related Anthropogenic Impact of the Environment

Ontological engineering is performed for studies on the environmental impact of energy objects. The work was carried out within the framework of the project supported by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research “Methods of building an ontological knowledge space for intelligent decision-making support in the energy sector and environment, in terms of the quality of life”. The study proposes developing a set of interconnected ontologies with the view to harmonizing terminology of different subject domains for research and decision support. The basic terminology used to examine the environmental impact of energy objects and to perform appropriate quantitative assessments is considered. Semantic methods are proposed, in particular, an ontological analysis of the subject domain, to systematize environmental assessments and establish relationships between the main indicators describing the impact of energy sector activity on the components of the environment. The ontological approach allows systematizing and visualizing the relationship between the components of the environment, energy objects and their characteristics, and impact factors. Ontological engineering made it possible to build a sequence of research and systematize the methodology used to assess the energy-related environmental impact.