Coordination of Different Map Themes using Cartographic Relations

Abstract

In cartography the coordination of different map themes is directly linked to map generalization (Imhof, 1972). That means a good generalization result can only be achieved by a reasonable coordination of participated map themes and their associated generalization operations and algorithms. In the field of automated map generalization there exist only a few research papers (e.g. Gaffuri, 2006 and Monnot et al., 2007a) where a simultaneous generalization and coordination has been implemented. The objective of this paper is to investigate a generic set of cartographic relations which could exist between different map themes and to prove how they can be used for cartographic coordination. One approach to define and recognize cartographic relations during generalization is data enrichment (Neun, 2007). Following this approach an auxiliary data structure was used to implement a simultaneous generalization of “rivers” and “borders”. This simple test case shows how cartographic relations can support the coordination of different map themes.