A Semantic Knowledge Graph of European Mountain Value Chains

Abstract

Abstract The United Nations forecast a significant shift in global population distribution by 2050, with rural populations projected to decline. This decline will particularly challenge mountain areas’ cultural heritage, well-being, and economic sustainability. Understanding the economic, environmental, and societal effects of rural population decline is particularly important in Europe, where mountainous regions are vital for supplying goods. The present paper describes a geospatially explicit semantic knowledge graph containing information on 454 European mountain value chains. It is the first large-size, structured collection of information on mountain value chains. Our graph, structured through ontology-based semantic modelling, offers representations of the value chains in the form of narratives. The graph was constructed semi-automatically from unstructured data provided by mountain-area expert scholars. It is accessible through a public repository and explorable through interactive Story Maps and a semantic Web service. Through semantic queries, we demonstrate that the graph allows for exploring territorial complexities and discovering new knowledge on mountain areas’ environmental, societal, territory, and economic aspects that could help stem depopulation.