Athanasia Darra

An Ontological Framework for Spatial Socioeconomic Units

Spatial units often serve as reference to socioeconomic phenomena constituting what is known as spatial socioeconomic units (SSEUs). SSEUs find a wide application in geography. This chapter presents the development of an ontological framework for the systematic definition of SSEUs on the basis of their properties, and particularly the spatial ones. Special attention is paid to the most common case of SSEUs, i.e., administrative units. SSEUs defined based on this framework can be effectively compared not only at the class level but also at the instance level. Furthermore, the restructuring of SSEUs and their unification into larger ones is greatly facilitated by the proposed property-based definition.

GEOTHNK: A Semantic Approach to Spatial Thinking

Spatial thinking has lately been acknowledged as an important ability both for sciences and for everyday life. There is a clear need for enhancing spatial thinking in education and engaging both educators and learners in more critical, inquiry-based teaching and learning methods. In this context, GEOTHNK project is a European effort to propose a scientifically grounded, technologically sustainable, and organizationally disruptive framework for the development of learning pathways for enhancing spatial thinking across education sectors and learning environments.