The European Committee for Standardization has released the second part of the Semantic Modeling and Linking (SML) standard, also known as EN 17632. This standard’s backbone is the previously known NEN 2660 standard. This blog addresses its core features and benefits, its connection to NEN 2660, and how your organization could benefit from applying it.

What is SML?

In the built environment (e.g., buildings and (energy) infrastructure), a wealth of valuable information is created throughout the life cycle of assets, from design to demolition. However, this information often gets lost because it is stored in various ways and by numerous involved parties.

To manage this information better, information must be easy to find, access, exchange, and reuse (according to the FAIR principles). By applying open Linked Data standards by the World Wide Web Consortium, SML helps make information interoperable and usable by humans and machines.

The standard focuses on making information compatible and easy to understand across different systems. It prescribes ways to model, publish, and link information in a standardized way rather than changing it on a case-by-case basis. The goal is to keep things simple and standardized, making information easier to work with.

As such, it also aligns well with the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), which gives recommendations to guide interoperability efforts. The SML standard implements parts of the EIF for syntactic and semantic interoperability. In other words; how to express certain information, and share understanding of its meaning.

How can EN 17632 benefit you?

There has been considerable uptake of the use of ontologies and organized information libraries by parties working in the built environment over the last few years. In line with this, there has been a proliferation of information models that are not aligned with a recognized standard. Dutch examples include information models for the national road authority and urban water management. To improve the consistency and interoperability across such domains, the need for new standards to guide the development of these models was recognized. 

There are two specific ways in which the SML standard helps:

1). Providing an upper ontology that can be used as a basis for domain ontologies and other data models. By defining core concepts, such as real objects (e.g., a chair), spatial region (e.g., a meeting room), and standard relations (e.g., a meeting room contains a chair), it provides a solid foundation for data exchange with a shared understanding of the meaning.

2). A set of modeling rules and patterns that can be applied to model data consistently and recognizably. Examples include guidelines on how to express technical requirements on an object or define the characteristics of an asset. 

Adopting the SML standard allows your organization to become more data-centric, less dependent on software vendors, and more agile in responding to new technological opportunities.

Our contribution to the EN 17632 standard

NEN2660 is a Dutch standard for information modeling and information exchange in the built environment. It helps achieve higher consistency in data models relevant to the built environment by implementing the data model using Linked Data standards. Along with practical rules and guidelines for its application.

Due to its success and impact on the Dutch built environment, the need to standardize information modeling in a broader European context was recognized. With international interoperability in mind, the EN 17632 standard was developed and published.

Conclusion

Of course, there are many more standards out there. Are you wondering how this standard relates to other standards and market developments? Stay tuned for more blogs on this topic, where we will dive deeper into this matter. In the meantime, reach out to Wouter Lubberts or contact us here.