An OWL2 Land Use Ontology: LBCS

This paper describes the “Land Based Classification Standards” (LBCS) OWL2 ontology used as a basic structure for the “City Information Modelling” (CIM) model developed within a larger research project aimed at developing a tool for urban planning and design. The main purpose is to provide semantic and computer-readable land use descriptions of georeferenced spatial data, to make available programming strategies and design options to the participants of the urban development process. There are several advantages of transferring a Land use standard into a OWL2 land use ontology: it is modular, it can be shared and reused, it can be extended and data consistency can be checked, it is ready to be integrated, supporting the interoperability of different urban planning applications.