Proving the Correctness of Knowledge Graph Update: A Scenario From Surveillance of Adverse Childhood Experiences

Abstract

Knowledge graphs are a modern way to store information. However, the knowledge they contain is not static. Instances of various classes may be added or deleted and the semantic relationship between elements might evolve as well. When such changes take place, a knowledge graph might become inconsistent and the knowledge it conveys meaningless. In order to ensure the consistency and coherency of dynamic knowledge graphs, we propose a method to model the transformations that a knowledge graph goes through and to prove that the new transformations do not yield inconsistencies. To do so, we express the knowledge graphs as logically decorated graphs, then we describe the transformations as algorithmic graph transformations and we use a Hoare-like verification process to prove correctness. To demonstrate the proposed method in action, we use examples from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which is a public health crisis.