{"id":919,"date":"2026-07-14T15:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T14:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/?page_id=919"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T14:50:12","slug":"knowledge-powered-model-integration-in-environmental-and-social-sciences-challenges-and-solutions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/knowledge-powered-model-integration-in-environmental-and-social-sciences-challenges-and-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge-Powered Model Integration in Environmental and Social Sciences: Challenges and Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/stadium.open.ac.uk\/stadia\/stadia\/speakerimages\/3650.jpg\" alt=\" Daniel Garijo\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Daniel Garijo &#8211; University of Southern California<br><small>This event took place on Friday 26 October 2018 at 11:30<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Environmental and social scientists rely on observational data to accurately model natural processes and human activities around the globe. Since these processes and activities do not occur in isolation, it is required to forecast how they affect each other by integrating different models. Model integration across disciplines requires resolving semantic, spatio-temporal, and execution mismatches, both at a data and software level. Today, these issues are largely resolved by hand and may take years of human effort to complete.<br><br>In this talk I will describe the main challenges we have faced when integrating hydrology, agronomy, climate and economic models; and how we are addressing these challenges with MINT, a Model INTegration framework that incorporates extensive knowledge about models and data. MINT includes 1) new principle-based ontology generation tools for modeling variables, used to describe models and data; 2) A novel workflow system that selects relevant models from a curated registry and uses abductive reasoning to hypothesize new models and data transformation steps; 3) A new data discovery and integration framework that learns to extract information from both online sources and remote sensing data and transforms the data into the format required by the models; 4) A novel framework for multi-modal scalable workflow execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stadium.open.ac.uk\/stadia\/preview.php?s=29&amp;whichevent=3147\">Watch the webcast replay &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/past-seminars\/\">View all past events<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full has-custom-css wp-custom-css-ac9b5317\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"213\" height=\"246\" src=\"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/07\/image-2.png\" alt=\"Maven of the Month\" class=\"wp-image-537\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-vertical is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-4fc3f8e1 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/maven-of-the-month\/\">Maven of the Month<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are also inviting top experts in AI and Knowledge Technologies to discuss major socio-technological topics with an audience that comprises both members of the Knowledge Media Institute, as well as the wider staff at The Open University. Differently from our seminar series, these events follow a Q&amp;A format.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Garijo &#8211; University of Southern CaliforniaThis event took place on Friday 26 October 2018 at 11:30 Environmental and social scientists rely on observational data to accurately model natural processes and human activities around the globe. Since these processes and activities do not occur in isolation, it is required to forecast how they affect each [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"unity_related_person":[],"unity_sdg":[],"unity_research_theme":[],"unity_strategic_priority":[],"unity_enabler":[],"unity_general_category":[],"unity_stem_unit":[],"unity_related_project":[],"unity_related_archived_project":[],"unity_related_event":[],"class_list":["post-919","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":920,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/919\/revisions\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"unity_related_person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_person?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_sdg","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_sdg?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_research_theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_research_theme?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_strategic_priority","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_strategic_priority?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_enabler","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_enabler?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_general_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_general_category?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_stem_unit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_stem_unit?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_project?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_archived_project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_archived_project?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_event?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}