Integració d'eines i mètodes de la mesura de la sostenibilitat d'un territori en un sistema d'informació

Abstract

Es realitza una recerca aplicada en els camps de la mesura de la sostenibilitat d’un territori, i dels sistemes d’informació, estudiats com un sistema complex. D’una banda, s’analitzen les eines i els mètodes aplicats en els estudis de sostenibilitat d’un territori (variables, indicadors, models conceptuals, etc.) i, d’altre banda, els conceptes i les eines informàtiques actuals. La tesi amplia els conceptes de variables i valors, i estableix mètodes per integrar la informació estructural d’un territori, així com per resoldre el càlcul de valors de variables derivades, mitjançant una sintaxis que permet descriure i executar fórmules i programes de càlcul. Es desenvolupa un disseny de la base d’informació, amb els tipus d’entitats que intervenen (territori, models conceptuals, variables, valors i fonts de dades) i alguns dels processos principals, enfocada a grups multidisciplinaris de recerca. Es presenten els prototips desenvolupats que s’han aplicat a casos pràctics, utilitzant software lliure.

The questions raised that are the basis of the research and the source that feeds the objectives are: 1. Is it possible to define a data model to undertake sustainability studies for territories with different types of organization, initially unknown? 2. Can data evolve incorporating new requirements and techniques, so it is re-usable for subsequent follow up studies? 3. Can the system incorporate views of researchers that come from different research areas, possibly with conflicting interests? Three knowledge areas are involved: sustainability; data, metadata and ontologies, and information systems. The objectives of the research are: - Conceptual definition of variables and values in the area of sustainability. - Establish a variables calculation and agregation method. - Definition of an integrated data structure. - Integration of conceptual models in the data structure. - Validation of the proposed methodology through prototyping. These objectives fit into the following main areas of concern: (a) sustainability measurement, calculation of indicators and indexes, territorial organization and free software. The methodology used is to collect and analyze the current status of each area, the vision as post-normal science, systems thinking and prototype development. The thesis shows the relationships between territory, data and conceptual models, and also proposes methods that allow them to work together. It defines the concepts of variables and values, and their relationship with the values ¿¿of conceptual models (reference values, thresholds ...). Pointed out contributing methods: - Define and integrate wide variety of organizational structures. - Define and calculate any type of indicator, index or variable. - Use conceptual frameworks concurrently with different sustainability criteria. - Prototypes are developed using free software