A Logical Pattern for Representing Change Over Time in OWL

While there exist OWL ontologies that capture events and acknowledge the dynamic nature of certain domains, the possibility of change is neglected in many domain-specific ontologies. Solutions to the representation of fluents have been proposed, however there exists no guidance for the average Semantic Web practitioner on how to incorporate these solutions into existing ontologies or implement them in the development of new ontologies. This paper addresses a gap in the literature on the representation of change over time in OWL through the introduction of a logical design pattern for representing change. The aim of this work is to make the representation of change more accessible to a broad audience of Semantic Web practitioners.