Data Harmonization for Semantic Interoperability

The PoliRuralPlus webinar held this week featured Raul Palma from the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, who presented a comprehensive session on data harmonization and semantic interoperability, key processes that enable effective data integration and advanced analytics across diverse agricultural systems.

Understanding Data Harmonization

Raul began by highlighting the increasing complexity of data exchange and integration in the agri-tech sector. While traditional integration focuses on bringing datasets together, data harmonization goes a step further by ensuring semantic consistency, that all systems interpret data in the same way. This approach enables smoother collaboration between platforms and more accurate, comparable analyses across different regions and applications.

Approaches and Tools

The presentation explored several approaches to semantic data harmonization, emphasizing the use of linked data, ontologies, and the Agricultural Information Model (AIM). Raul explained how these frameworks standardize data representation and improve interoperability, allowing agricultural and environmental datasets to be shared and reused more effectively.

Within the PoliRuralPlus project, Raul demonstrated how these methods are being implemented through linked data pipelines. The team uses JSON-LD to represent harmonized data, generating standardized APIs that can connect diverse data sources to analytical tools and dashboards.

From Integration to Insight

Participants saw practical examples of visualizing and accessing harmonized data through user-friendly web interfaces and dashboards. Raul emphasized that harmonization not only simplifies data exchange but also lays the foundation for AI-assisted analytics, semantic search, and policy modeling in rural innovation contexts.

👉 Follow the PoliRuralPlus Tools Webinar Series through our website and social media channels to explore more on how AI and geospatial intelligence are transforming regional innovation and policy-making.