Mathematical Application of Heterogeneous Knowledge for Sustainable Planning Decisions

Acquiring and processing/computing knowledge from different sources is a central concern in many fields of applied science.

The increasing development of knowledge machines and knowledge-based artificial agents strongly contributes to this centrality of heterogeneous knowledge in decisions and plans.

In fact, knowledge-based technologies show a tendency to use any piece of knowledge from reality that could be potentially useful for their autonomous development, so that they tend to produce artificial machineries able to incorporate big amounts of data expressed in different and difficult to be combined metrics at least in conventional mathematical forms.

Plans are rational courses of optimal action in which values and goals, the exploration and decision about different ways of action to help accomplish goals, and action and transformation of action in case of error are central.

Sustainability is a concept which deals with maintaining a process in the world in the dynamic equilibrium which is central in the ontology of that process. In this vein, sustainable plans are plans which can be steadily operated without unforeseen and undesired effects from some point of view. 

A system is a representation of reality which is operated by a given agent for acquiring knowledge and for being active in it. Systems are complex because of their typical conceptual architecture made of numerous interrelated components which pave the way for the appearance of infinite values and also because of the possibility of navigation of knowledge through different hierarchical layers in representation of reality.

Big amounts of knowledge data expressed according different metrics, uncertainty and ambiguity of data, difficult data integration, difficult problem solving because of iteration of cycles solution>problem, and possibility of different modes of viewing and acting by the involved agents are typical of complex systems and  of sustainable planning and decision that are built on a systems representation of reality.

Fuzzy set theory and fuzzy numbers since the 1970s have provided rigorous means for computation of non-data expressed in non-cardinal metrics. Revisiting and innovating set theories and exploring potentials of abstract algebra in interpreting and processing heterogeneous data suggest new operational streams of heterogeneous knowledge computation.

More and more big data sets include various instances of heterogeneous knowledge and of consequent reasoning modes. Literature is abundant in providing knowledge labels relevant for modes and complexities of computation: uncertain, ambiguous, monotonic, non-monotonic, utilitarian,  emotional, axiomatic structured, unstructured, explicit, latent knowledge, sense-based, commonsense, expert, generic, narrative, semantic knowledge, sentiment-based, collaborative, social, temporal, predictive, memory-based, innate, creative, etc. are attributes of different streams of current research in knowledge computation.

The Special Issue of Mathematics entitled “Mathematical Application on Heterogeneous Knowledge for Sustainable Planning Decisions” will deal with the above described problems of knowledge computation trying to bring to a common discussion scientists from mathematics and logic, computer science, engineering, economics, biology, neuroscience, and other domains of interest for complexity of computation and representation of knowledge multiplicities. 

Prof. Dr. Luigi dell’Olio
Prof. Dr. Dino Borri
Prof. Dr. Atif Kubursi
Guest Editors

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• Heterogeneous Knowledge
• Fuzzy Set Theory
• Fuzzy Numbers
• Sustainability
• Sustainable Planning Decisions