Approaching healthy city ontology: First-level classes definition using BFO

Abstract

In recent decades, the concept of the healthy city (HC) has become more and more relevant in many fields, such as city administration and scientific environment, and has become a commonly understood concept in the general public. Due to the breakneck growth of people living in urban contexts, the subsequent necessity to guarantee good urban conditions for all kinds of citizens, and the general deterioration of the hearth environment caused by human activities (concentrated in urban settlements), this issue is increasing in its relevance. In this paper, the authors discuss the concept of the HC from an ontological point of view to organize the highly complex system of elements and the mutual relations that constitute the idea of HC. The main goals of an HC are quite intuitive, but the number of components that define and manage it is vast and related to different disciplines: sustainability, urban management, urban planning, and health and social studies. With the presented research, the authors intend to start an organizational definition of the HC using basic formal ontology (BFO). Considering the definition of HC, the authors focus on the ontology process and the different typologies of ontological structures. Then, the authors describe a first-level scheme of HC ontology and, finally, discuss possible applications of the presented study and next research steps.