A territorial based strategy for the distribution of sensor networks in smart cities Nowadays land governance has to keep up with sudden environmental and social transformations of cities. Therefore it is necessary to improve the exchange of real-time information among different stakeholders. One of the solutions is to acquire data not only by Remote Sensing, but also by sensor networks distributed on the territory. In this way information are developed with multiple connections and a smarter management of cities can be achieved. However there are not strategies for the distribution of the sensors yet and it often takes to an excess of not interrelated data. Therefore it is important to design the networks according to the features of the territory in which they are distributed. This aim can be achieved with the study of infrastructural, cultural and functional aspects of the cities. The goal of this paper is to define a method to plan an optimized distribution of sensors in the city based on the analysis of characteristics and relations among urban zones.