TITLE:
Development of an Ontology for Modeling Spatial Planning Systems
AUTHORS:
Miltiades Lazoglou, Demos C. Angelides
KEYWORDS:
Spatial Planning Systems, Knowledge Management, Ontologies
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.4 No.2,
June
30,
2016
ABSTRACT: The incorporation of computer-based technologies into spatial planning has increased the availability
of spatial information. Ontologies are prominent in this process because they create repositories
of digital information that can help an interdisciplinary interaction among experts, or between
experts and citizens, or they can support informed decisions by policymakers or administration
so as to limit discretionary powers and enhance shared community futures. This paper
proposes an ontology that models the relations among the domestic actors, development policies,
spatial schemes, spatial schemes’ administrative bounds, spatial levels and evaluation process in a
spatial planning system. Interests in this paper occur in gathering an enriched and complex
knowledge base for planning purposes which can deal with the complexity of spatial problems in
terms of knowledge, cognition, perception, domestic actors’ behaviors and expectations, roles and
interactions. The proposed ontology could be used as the core of a knowledge infrastructure for
storing, organizing, and monitoring the implementations of existing spatial schemes and plans on
national, regional, and local scales. As a case study, this paper discusses the spatial planning system
in Greece, as such knowledge infrastructure is critically lacking in the Greek state.