Description
The FAIR Principles have made biodiversity data findable, accessible, and interoperable, but not operationally usable. A critical layer is missing between semantic representation and context-sensitive action, one that distinguishes the structural capacity of a knowledge representation to support operations (actionability) from the epistemic reliability of using it in a specific context (applicability) based on an empirical evidence track of successful and failed applications (auditability). Conflating these has contributed to well-documented failures in conservation practice.
We propose the TripleA Principle (Actionability, Applicability, and Auditability) as a post-FAIR guiding framework, and argue that the concept of Action Units, implemented within the Semantic Units Framework, provides the representational foundation next-generation biodiversity knowledge infrastructures require.
We introduce Action Units as formal knowledge objects that extend plan specifications within the Semantic Units Framework by making applicability conditions explicit as first-class typed components. Three types correspond to three operation classes: epistemic action units ask ‘What is the case here, and does this knowledge apply?’; transformational action units ask ‘How can available representations be processed into usable form?’; and intervention action units ask ‘What can be done in this situation to achieve a desired outcome?’ Conditional action units, i.e., executable IF–THEN rules linking SPARQL context queries to workflow triggers, enable knowledge graphs to serve as AI-ready decision-support systems.
Applied to biodiversity science, the framework addresses conservation failures and enables practitioners to identify where actionable knowledge is missing.
This is a conceptual proposal; implementation is deferred to subsequent work.
| Topic | Topic 1: : Methods for integrating social and ecological knowledge |
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