Knowledge graph for policy- and practice-aligned life cycle analysis and reporting

Abstract

The built environment is a key leverage point for policy intervention to combat climate change and the statutory reporting of financial and non-financial indicators over the asset lifecycle is increasingly required. This poses significant information management challenges in a sector characterised by complexity. Contributions to-date which address Life Cycle Asset Information Management (LCAIM) remain siloed and difficult to generalise, resulting in limited in-practice uptake, but domain literature identifies graph databases and ontologies as suitable strategies for addressing this information-intensive challenge. This paper provides a LCAIM ontology, co-developed with stakeholders, and verified technically through implementation in a case study by responding to end-user-defined storage, retrieval, and enrichment functions using a knowledge graph. The prototype is then validated qualitatively with experts who perceive it as addressing collective governance-practice requirements. Overall, the study suggests that addressing technical LCAIM challenges may be feasible using available technologies and recommends prioritising research towards socio-economic issues.