The basic connotation and empowerment mechanism of spatio-temporal information

The empowerment of spatio-temporal information fully releases and amplifies its value as a critical factor of production, meeting the need of the era to support the high-quality development across diverse economic and social sections. Currently, foundational research into the empowerment of spatio-temporal information remains undeveloped, predominantly constrained by the perception that empowerment is synonymous with application. The lack of comprehensive understanding and investigation into its mechanism results in ambiguity in both the connotation and extension of spatio-temporal information, as well as the intrinsic mechanism of its empowerment. Such vagueness restricts the empowerment in a scientific and efficient manner. There is an immediate necessity to delineate its fundamental essence, mechanisms of empowerment, and operational modes clearly. To address the aforementioned challenges, this paper defines the foundational concept, explores the rich connotation, and outlines the essential characteristics of spatio-temporal information. It posits that entropy serves as the physical foundation for the empowerment of spatio-temporal information, with entropy decrease acting as its inherent driving force. The empowerment of spatio-temporal information utilizes spatio-temporal information as the medium, driven by the negative entropy flow, marked by the transformation of inherent uncertainty. This process enhances both the system's structure and performance through the dynamic interplay among humans, machines and the external environment. This paper describes three empowerment modes of spatiotemporal information: taking spatio-temporal information as the in-itself information for direct empowerment, employing it as the being-itself information for indirect empowerment, and converting it into spatio-temporal knowledge for enhanced empowerment. Lastly, this paper investigates the pathways through which the empowerment of spatio-temporal information contributes to the high-quality development of natural resources. © 2024 Science Press. All rights reserved.