Applying of an Ontology based Modeling Approach to Cultural Heritage Systems

Any virtual environment (VE) built in a classical way is dedicated to a very specific domain. Its modification or even adaptation to another domain requires an expensive human intervention measured in time and money. This way, the product, that means the VE, returns at the first phases of the development process. In a previous work we proposed an approach that combines domain ontologies and conceptual modeling to construct more accurate VEs. Our method is based on the description of the domain knowledge in a standard format and the assisted creation (using these pieces of knowledge) of the VE. This permits the explanation within the virtual reality (VR) simulation of the semantic of the whole context and of each object. This knowledge may be then transferred to the public users. In this paper we prove the effectiveness of our method on the construction process of an VE that simulates the organization of a Greek-Roman colony situated on the Black Sea coast and the economic and social activities of its people