ABOUT EXTERNAL GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN SMART CITIES

Abstract. Any territory can easily be considered as an open system in which external effects can greatly influence its evolution in addition to inner dynamics. However, in practically all local authorities, their so-called geographic information or knowledge systems are bounded by the jurisdiction’s limit, and therefore are closed systems. In this paper, we advocate the necessity not only to consider but also to include external influences within any GIS or GKS. Therefore, among external influences, we will consider beyond intra muros knowledge, extra muros knowledge divided in two categories, nearby neighboring knowledge, for instance located in an outer crown around the jurisdiction territory, but also farther knowledge for instance from technology watch. After having analyzed the semantics of borderlines, we suggest some element for the design of the crown and we analyze how the various components of a geographic knowledge base (objects, relations, ontologies, gazetteers, rules, etc.) can be integrated. Then some aspects regarding updating external knowledge are rapidly sketched. As a conclusion, we evoke the necessity of designing administrative protocols so that administration can negotiate the exchange of external knowledge bunches. In other words, this is an attempt to fully integrate the so-called Tobler’s first law of geography.