AIA: An Open-Source Semantic Framework for Universally Interpretable Impact Data

Climate and sustainability projects generate vast amounts of impact data — but too often, that data is hard to compare, integrate, or audit. Different projects use different terms, schemas, and structures — even when they are measuring the same underlying phenomena. This fragmentation creates friction for integrators and limits meaningful, global, cross-platform impact accounting.

On 17 February 2026 at 08:00 AM Pacific, the LFDT CA2-SIG Standards Working Group will present the Anthropogenic Impact Accounting (AIA) ontology suite, an open-source semantic framework designed to address this challenge. Developed over four years through rigorous bi-weekly working sessions and multiple redrafting cycles, the AIA suite provides a coherent and extensible foundation for expressing impact data in a universally interpretable way.

The first public release of AIA, published on 16 September 2025, comprises four modular, W3ID-registered ontologies:
- claimont (https://w3id.org/claimont): Semantics for claims, claimants, evidence, and attestations
- infocomm (https://w3id.org/infocomm): Communication primitives for structured information exchange
- impactont (https://w3id.org/impactont): Foundational concepts for modeling impact relationships
- aiao (https://w3id.org/aiao): An integrated framework for anthropogenic impact accounting

Join us for an overview of how AIA can help your impact data become more interoperable, auditable, and reusable!