Anticipatory Approach to Maintain Consistency in Ontology Versions

Abstract

Ontologies are often used in changing environmentsand therefore cannot be considered as a finite and stableconceptualization of a domain of knowledge. The managementof ontology evolution requires monitoring and consideration of two important and complementary aspects: (1) the history of evolution to ensure traceability of changes and (2) the conformity of ontology in relation to their original objectives.This paper proposes an anticipatory approach for maintaining consistency of ontology after its evolution. This approach is based on the anticipation of inconsistencies that can be generated by types of change in order to propose additional functions to correct them. These functions called corrective operations aim to address the potential inconsistencies that are likely to be generated. Each type of change must be applied in conjunction with the corrective operations to guarantee theconformity and the quality of ontology. An Ontology Evolution Tool has been developed to allow updating ontologies while preserving their coherence.