Copyright © 2026 Junda Huang. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Construct-DCAT is a lightweight RDF vocabulary for adding representation-independent semantic anchors to DCAT catalog records for heterogeneous construction datasets. The catalog metadata is RDF, while the data it describes may be IFC, Asset Administration Shell (AAS) JSON, tabular, geospatial, sensor, document, RDF, or another representation.
This release defines no required properties, cardinalities, SHACL shapes, catalog instance-data validation rules, conformance classes, or closed lists of permitted values. The examples are informative. The authoritative machine-readable term declarations are the RDF serializations published with this document.
Feedback and implementation experience are welcome through the GitHub issue tracker.
At the time of this release, resolution of the canonical W3ID is pending review in perma-id/w3id.org pull request 6492. The GitHub Pages documentation and serializations are available independently; the canonical vocabulary IRIs remain unchanged.
Construction catalogs routinely describe datasets stored in unrelated technical representations. A single catalog can include an IFC model, an AAS package, sensor exports, geospatial files, documents, and RDF. DCAT provides the common catalog model; Construct-DCAT adds a compact set of discovery anchors that say what construction entities a dataset describes and which semantic resources it uses.
Construct-DCAT extends descriptions of dcat:Dataset records.
Its anchors are representation independent: property values are intended
to be IRIs that identify semantic anchors, but the cataloged distributions
do not need to be RDF. The two dataset classes in this release are useful
starting points rather than an exhaustive construction dataset taxonomy.
Version 0.1.0 deliberately avoids narrow alignments and a closed list of
external vocabularies. It asserts no rdfs:subPropertyOf
relationships to DCAT or Dublin Core terms.
This release does not:
https://w3id.org/construct-dcathttps://w3id.org/construct-dcat#cx:0.1.0@prefix cx: <https://w3id.org/construct-dcat#> .
@prefix dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .RDFS domain and range declarations support inference; they are not validation constraints. An absent range means that this vocabulary asserts no formal range for that property. It does not mean that values are literals, unrestricted strings, or invalid.
| Term | Kind | Domain or parent | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
cx:AASDataset |
Class | Subclass of dcat:Dataset |
Not applicable |
cx:BIMDataset |
Class | Subclass of dcat:Dataset |
Not applicable |
cx:describesAssetType |
Object property | dcat:Dataset |
rdfs:Class |
cx:usesOntology |
Object property | dcat:Dataset |
No formal range asserted |
cx:alignsWithConcept |
Object property | dcat:Dataset |
skos:Concept |
cx:hasAASSubmodel |
Object property | dcat:Dataset |
No formal range asserted |
https://w3id.org/construct-dcat#AASDatasetowl:Classdcat:Datasethttps://w3id.org/construct-dcat#BIMDatasetowl:Classdcat:Datasethttps://w3id.org/construct-dcat#describesAssetTypeowl:ObjectPropertydcat:Datasetrdfs:Classhttps://w3id.org/construct-dcat#usesOntologyowl:ObjectPropertydcat:Datasethttps://w3id.org/construct-dcat#alignsWithConceptowl:ObjectPropertydcat:Datasetskos:Concepthttps://w3id.org/construct-dcat#hasAASSubmodelowl:ObjectPropertydcat:DatasetThis section is non-normative.
The following catalog metadata describes two datasets whose distributions remain ordinary non-RDF files. The IRIs identify semantic anchors at catalog level; they do not convert the distributions into RDF.
@prefix bot: <https://w3id.org/bot#> .
@prefix cx: <https://w3id.org/construct-dcat#> .
@prefix dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix ex: <https://example.org/construct-dcat/> .
@prefix ifc: <https://standards.buildingsmart.org/IFC/DEV/IFC4_3/OWL#> .
ex:wall-model
a dcat:Dataset, cx:BIMDataset ;
dcterms:title "Example IFC wall model"@en ;
cx:describesAssetType ifc:IfcWall ;
cx:usesOntology bot: ;
dcat:distribution ex:wall-model-ifc .
ex:wall-model-ifc
a dcat:Distribution ;
dcterms:format "IFC-SPF" ;
dcat:downloadURL <https://example.org/construct-dcat/data/wall-model.ifc> .@prefix cx: <https://w3id.org/construct-dcat#> .
@prefix dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix ex: <https://example.org/construct-dcat/> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
ex:pump-aas
a dcat:Dataset, cx:AASDataset ;
dcterms:title "Example pump Asset Administration Shell"@en ;
cx:hasAASSubmodel ex:nameplate-submodel ;
cx:alignsWithConcept ex:maintenance-concept ;
dcat:distribution ex:pump-aas-json .
ex:pump-aas-json
a dcat:Distribution ;
dcterms:format "Asset Administration Shell JSON" ;
dcat:mediaType <https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/json> ;
dcat:downloadURL <https://example.org/construct-dcat/data/pump-aas.json> .
# This project-local IRI deliberately avoids claiming an official AAS RDF
# namespace or canonical RDF class for Submodel.
ex:nameplate-submodel
dcterms:title "Example nameplate submodel descriptor"@en ;
dcterms:description "An illustrative discovery anchor, not an official AAS RDF term."@en .
ex:maintenance-concept
a skos:Concept ;
skos:prefLabel "Maintenance information"@en .The project-local submodel IRI is illustrative. It deliberately avoids claiming that an official AAS RDF namespace or canonical RDF class for Submodel has been selected. See the complete example catalog.
This SPARQL query finds datasets that describe IFC walls and reference
the Building Topology Ontology. The zero-or-more path operator in
rdfs:subClassOf* also matches ifc:IfcWall itself.
PREFIX cx: <https://w3id.org/construct-dcat#>
PREFIX dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX ifc: <https://standards.buildingsmart.org/IFC/DEV/IFC4_3/OWL#>
PREFIX bot: <https://w3id.org/bot#>
SELECT ?dataset ?assetType
WHERE {
?dataset a dcat:Dataset ;
cx:describesAssetType ?assetType ;
cx:usesOntology bot: .
?assetType rdfs:subClassOf* ifc:IfcWall .
}
Construct-DCAT is designed for use on DCAT dataset records. Both classes
are subclasses of dcat:Dataset, and every property has
dcat:Dataset as its declared domain. DCAT remains responsible
for general catalog metadata such as titles, distributions, access URLs,
media types, and licenses.
A DCAT-AP catalog may also use Construct-DCAT terms, but this release does not itself define DCAT-AP obligations, cardinalities, or validation rules.
VoID can describe vocabularies, classes, properties, and partitions that occur within RDF datasets. Construct-DCAT instead exposes representation-independent semantic anchors on DCAT catalog records, including records for non-RDF datasets. An RDF dataset may use both vocabularies together; their roles are complementary.
The repository validator parses the Turtle and JSON-LD serializations, checks that they are RDF-isomorphic, verifies the declared six-term model, and parses and executes the example SPARQL query. It also checks that the published specification snapshots and RDF copies remain synchronized.
These checks protect the integrity of the published artifacts. They are not an instance-conformance test for catalogs that use Construct-DCAT.
| Version | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1.0 | 2026-08-05 | Initial conceptual release with two dataset classes and four object properties. |
Construct-DCAT is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Citation metadata is available in the repository's
CITATION.cff file.