Ontology-Driven Generalization of Cartographic Representations by Aggregation and Dimensional Collapse

Abstract

Abstract. Automatic generalization of cartographic features has been recognized as a goal of Geographic Information Science (GIScience). Many successful algorithms have been introduced for generalization tasks such as point reduction and smoothing of linear features. Such algorithms operate well as a function of change in map scale or resolution. Other generalization tasks have proved considerably more difficult. Two of these operations, aggregation and dimensional collapse, are trivial to implement -replacing a set of points with an area feature or replacing an area feature with a single point -but have proven challenging to make operational. The decision to aggregate or collapse features is as much dependent on the context of the features as they are change in map scale. This dissertation proposes to show how ontologies can be used to inform automated generalization in these operations.

Expert System for Cartography Based on Ontology

“…So we have searched for existing ontology for cartography to use it. Unfortunately there is not any available, except two mentioned in [3] and [4]. These mentioned ontologies are only mentioned but not really available for practical usage.…”

From taxonomies to ontologies: formalizing generalization knowledge for on-demand mapping

“…This is not the first time that ontologies have been used in map generalization research. For example Kulik, Duckham, and Egenhofer (2005) used ontologies to aid road line simplification; by Dutton and Edwardes (2006) to represent the roles of geographic features and semantic and structural relationships between features in a coastal region; by Wolf (2009) to influence the aggregation and dimensional collapse of features; and by Lüscher, Weibel, and Mackaness (2008) to aid the recognition of terrace houses. However, none of these ontologies sought to describe the process of generalization; the identification, sequencing and execution of generalization algorithms.…”

“…The task may also be made easier by incorporating existing work such as ontology design patterns for topographic feature types (Varanka 2011) and spatial relations (Touya et al 2014). It has been recognized that for successful multi-scale mapping it is necessary to capture the semantics of geographic features and the relationships between them (Stoter et al 2010;Wolf 2009;Dutton and Edwardes 2006) but it is also necessary to capture the characteristics of the processes of generalization. Over twenty years ago, Nyerges (1991) recognized that cartographers lacked the means to systematically document the knowledge required for generalization; ontologies now provide such a tool.…”

Design and construction of knowledge ontology for thematic cartography domain

“…Ontologies play a significant part in applying processing techniques dealing with contextual generalization of map geographical elements. Firstly, this is a case of line simplification (Kulik et al, 2005) and other aspects of contextual generalization of map features; (Kulik at al., 2005;Edwardes and Dutton, 2006;Lûscher et al, 2007;Regnauld, 2007;Wolf, 2009). An example is the transformation of small scale elements of the map and elimination of less important or unique features applied mostly to spatial data used for visualization in maps published traditional or electronic forms.…”