Publications

Description

Authors: Cathal Hoare, Reihaneh Aghamolaei, Muireann Lynch, Ankita Gaur, James O’Donnell

Abstract: Interactions between built infrastructure are complex and nuanced; changes to any one component can have disproportionate effects on the system as a whole. For instance, adoption of heat pumps or electric vehicles by a significant proportion of a population in an urban centre would place new demands on both (opens in a new window)electricity transmission and (opens in a new window)distribution networks. It is essential that planners – both national and local – can understand and (opens in a new window)share information about the resource demands that this type of change places on national and local infrastructure. Access to integrated sources of information – from building component to national levels – is key to supporting policy makers and decision takers. However, over time, information – and as a consequence, the software that manages it – has evolved into functional silos; this has, in turn, affected the definition of data exchange standards. This limits the ability of experts in functional areas to exchange data and implement broader decision (opens in a new window)support systems. This paper describes the use of (opens in a new window)linked data approaches to permit queries across large, diverse (opens in a new window)information sources to provide reasoning about complex questions at multiple scales. The methodology defines a central context to which various (opens in a new window)external sources can be attached. These distributed sources are, in themselves, registered in a central catalogue; they remain, however, under the control of their source organisations. In this way a large, extensible, interconnected network of distributed data describing, for example, a built environment or (opens in a new window)electricity transmission network; this network of data resources can be queried centrally to provide customised views of subsets of the data, and so provide a richer view than one source in isolation. The approach was applied to prepare and integrate information about Ireland’s transmission grid and administrative boundaries, along with domestic housing stock into a single (opens in a new window)data source. The resulting data network is queried by a scenario exploration tool. This tool successfully allows analysis, at a national level by economists, of the effects of the adoption of new technologies on the national grid of Ireland.