TKRM: A Formal Knowledge Representation Method for Typhoon Events

Abstract

Typhoon events can cause serious environmental damage and economic losses. Understanding the development of typhoon events will provide valuable knowledge for disaster prevention and mitigation. In the age of big data, the sharp contrast between the sudden increase of mass information and the lack of a knowledge appreciation mechanism appears. There is an urgent need to promote the transformation of information services to knowledge services in the field of hazard management. Knowledge representation, as a strategy for symbolizing and formalizing knowledge, affects knowledge acquisition, storage, management, and application, and is the basis and prerequisite for the implementation of knowledge services. Based on the evolution law of typhoon events and human cognitive habits, a formal knowledge representation method for typhoon events (TKRM) is proposed in this paper. First, by analyzing the evolution characteristics of typhoon events, the TKRM framework with three layers consisting of “event–process–state” was constructed, which was used to describe the knowledge composition and relationship of the different granularity of typhoon events. Second, the formal representation of the TKRM framework was formed by using a finite state machine (FSM) as a reference, taking time and location as the basic conditions, and extending the hierarchical and parallel representation mechanism. Finally, the rationality and practical value of the TKRM were verified using a case study.