Finding sustainability data on the Web

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Finding sustainability data on the Web

• David Leal
• CAESAR Systems Limited
• david.leal_at_caesarsystems.co.uk

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Using emerging technologies

• Identifying things by HTTP URIs
• getting data about them by dereferencing
• Data as RDF statements
• readable RDF as N3
• a little bit of formality from OWL
• The importance of standard RDF vocabularies
• This is what will make it work
• This is our task

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About URIs

• a URI is just a string of characters
• They are unique identifiers for things, which are
  used on the web
• A thing can have more than one URI, but a URI
  identifies only one thing
• HTTP URI
• formerly called a URL
• The use of an HTTP URI implies that an HTTP
  (HyperText Transfer Protocol) access, e.g. from a
  browser, is valid
• But you may be disappointed and get error 404
  no answer was the stern reply
• a URN
• A URI which does not imply any form of access
• used by some organisations e.g. ISO, ISBN
• urnisostdiso15926-2

The Web is based upon HTTP URIs dont worry
about URNs
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What a URI identifies
Uniform Resource Identifier

• a web page
• http//www.iom3.org/index.htm
• You can open it with your browser data is
  downloaded
• You can follow links to other web pages
• an object
• http//www.iom3.org/
• This is the organisation Institute of Materials,
  Minerals and Mining
• It has a Royal Charter it cannot be downloaded
  to a browser
• a formula
• http//www.iom3.org/formula.n3
• This is a computer interpretable file of RDF
  statements about the IoM3
• It can be process by Semantic Web browser or by
  an application

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Dereferencing a URI
dereferencing means attempting to get some
data. You can only dereference an HTTP URI.

• If the URI identifies a web page you get it
• If the URI identifies an RDF formula you get it
• It the URI identifies an object ....
• The object could be the Eiffel Tower, or the
  Institute of Materials neither can be
  downloaded to your browser
• either you get nothing (error 404), or you are
  redirected to a representation

access to http//www.iom3.org/ is redirected to
http//www.iom3.org/index.htm
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Semantic Web technologies

• RDF (Resource Description Framework)
• making statements on the Web
• http//www.w3.org/RDF/
• N3 (Notation 3)
• a simple way of writing down an RDF statement
• http//www.w3.org/TeamSubmission/n3/

An opportunity to

• record information more simply
• enable others to use our concepts
• use the concepts of others

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Getting started
RDF diagram
Janet
John
loves
Jane believes
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Getting started
namespaces
_at_prefix people lthttp//www.friends-are-u
s.com/registry/gt . _at_prefix relationships
lthttp//www.institute-of_relationships.org/vocabul
arygt .
peopleJanet relationshiploves
peopleJohn .
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.. or as XML
lt?xml version"1.0"?gt lt!DOCTYPE rdfRDF
lt!ENTITY rdf "http//www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syn
tax-ns"gt lt!ENTITY people "http//www.friends-are
-us.com/registry/"gt lt!ENTITY relationships
"http//www.institute-of_relationships.org/vocabul
ary"gt gt ltrdfRDF xmlnsrdf"rdf"
xmlnsrelationships"relationships"gt
ltrdfDescription rdfabout"peopleJanet"gt
ltrelationshipsloves rdfresource"peopleJohn/gt
lt/rdfDescriptiongt lt/rdfRDFgt
no more precise and not as readable
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Clever browsers
http//www.iom3.org/index.htm
The IoM3 has not implemented this yet
click to view the formula
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Clever browsers
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Suppose you want a formula

• Usually redirection takes you to an HTML web page
• This is good, because a person may need to know
  what a URI identifies the web page can tell him
  or her
• If an application want the formula, then there
  are two options
• content negotiation the HTTP protocol allows
  the GET request to specify the required format
  RDF can be specified
• link from the HTML file this is hidden in the
  header and is used by applications when required

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Suppose you want a formula
http//www.iom3.org/index.htm
lthtmlgt ltheadgt lttitlegtIOM3 - Institute of
Materials, Minerals and Mininglt/titlegt ltlink
rel"alternate" type"application/rdfxml"
title"RDF Representation"
href"http//www.iom3.org/formula.n3" /gt ltmeta
name"description" content"Institute of
Materials, Minerals and Mining/gt ltmeta
name"keywords" content"IOM3, IOM, IMM,
materials, world, academy, profession, science,
engineering, metals, ceramics, polymers, glass,
rubber, minerals, mining, plastics, institute,
careers, jobs, journals, education"/gt ......
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Suppose you want a formula
http//www.iom3.org/formula.n3
_at_prefix con lthttp//www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/p
im/contactgt. _at_prefix tabont lthttp//dig.csail.m
it.edu/2005/ajar/ajaw/ontgt . _at_prefix foaf
lthttp//xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/gt . _at_prefix dc
lthttp//purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/gt
. lthttp//www.iom3.org/gt a
eng-sciEngineeringInstitution dctitle
"Institute of Materials, Minerals and
Mining" conphone lttel44 (0)20
7451 7300gt foafwebpage
lthttp//www.iom3.org/index.htmgt
. lthttp//www.iom3.org/congress-2008gt a
eng-sciConference dctitle
"Materials Congress 2008 - Materials for
the Future" tabontisMentionedIn
lthttp//www.iom3.org/congress-2008/formula.n3gt
. ......
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An individual product
http//packing-machinery.cn/item/08-12345
Ruian Zhuxin Machinery Co. Ltd.
manufactured by
item/08-12345
type
model/ML1800
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An individual product
http//packing-machinery.cn/item/08-12345
http//packing-machinery.cn/item/08-12345/formula.
n3
_at_prefix rzm lthttp//packing-machin
ery.cn/gt . _at_prefix iso
lthttp//www.tc184-sc4.org/vocabularygt .
rzmitem/08-12345 isomanufacturedBy
lthttp//packing-machinery.cngt
a rzmmodel/ML1800 .
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A class of product
http//packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800
The Ruian Zhuxin Machinery Co has not implemented
this yet as far as I know
http//packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800/formula.n
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_at_prefix rzm lthttp//packing-machin
ery.cn/gt . _at_prefix iso
lthttp//www.tc184-sc4.org/vocabularygt . _at_prefix
packing lthttp//www.packing.association
.org/vocabularygt .
rzmmodel/ML1800 isohasMass
scalekilogram 14000
packingmaximum_rule_length scalemetre
50 packingspeed
scaleperMinute 16
packingmotorPower scalekilowatt
11 ......
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LCA data in the formula
http//packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800
http//packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800/formula.n
3

• Each item of model ML1800 requires
• emissions of 25 kg CO2 to produce
• emissions of -4 kg CO2 to dispose (negative
  because recycling displaces mineral extraction)
• emission of 0.001kg CO2 per hour to run (European
  electricity generation mix).

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LCA data in the formula
http//packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800
http//packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800/formula.n
3
rzmmodel/ML1800 lcaunitProductionCO2emission
scalekilogram 25
lcaunitDisposalCO2emission
scalekilogram -4
lcahourUseCO2emission
scalekilogram 0.001 .
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Actually it is more complicated
but not different in principle
ML1800
manufacture of 1 ML1800 item
reference output
output flow
output flow
output flow
flow 3
flow 2
flow 1
material
material
destination
substance
destination
amount
amount
substance
SO2
0.01 kg
25 kg
CO2
atmosphere
objects and relationships defined in ISO 14048
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Actually it is more complicated
rxmprocess/ML1800 lcahasOutputFlow
a lcaReferenceFlow
lcadestination lcaTechnosphere
lcamaterial lcaloadOf
rxmmodel/ML1800
lcanumberInLoad 1 lcahasOutputFlow
lcadestination lcaAtmosphere
lcaMaterial a
iupacCarbonDioxide
lcaamount scalekilogram 25
lcahasOutputFlow
lcadestination lcaAtmosphere
lcaMaterial a
iupacSulfurDioxide
lcaamount scalekilogram 0.01
......
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Making this work

• Material products have HTTP URIs
• A new business process
• Dereferencing gives
• Web page of information about the product Web
  1.0
• RDF formula about the product Web 3.0
• Standard vocabularies to use in the formulae
• Vocabularies for product properties
• Vocabularies for LCA
• LCA data published using the same approach
• Products have URIs, dereferencing give LCA data

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Navigating the supply chain
supply x
LCA data from analysis of supply
supply 1
LCA data from analysis of supply
product
supply y
supply 2
supply z
subclass of
subclass of
subclass of
class A
class B
class C
class D
class D
LCA catalogues (e.g. EU LCA InfoHub) linked to
industrial catalogues
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Ends