Kinds of Full Physical Containment

Full physical containment is the relation in which one physical entity is completely inside another. It is central to the description of natural resources held in reservoirs above or below the surface. Previous ontological representations of containment are located in abstract space, incomplete, or insufficiently incorporate voids, so in this paper we develop a complete taxonomy for the full containment relation that is situated in physical space and integrates voids. The taxonomy is formalized in a mereotopological theory and specializes the DOLCE foundational ontology, thus advancing hydro ontology development.