Spatial Information Theory. Cognitive and Computational Foundations of Geographic Information Science

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XIII

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2. Landmarks and Navigation

   1. Large-Scale Navigation: The Insect Case

      • Rüdiger Wehner

      Pages 1-20

   2. Route Navigation Using Motion Analysis

      • Thomas Röfer

      Pages 21-36

   3. The Nature of Landmarks for Real and Electronic Spaces

      • Molly E. Sorrows, Stephen C. Hirtle

      Pages 37-50

3. Route Directions

   1. Pictorial and Verbal Tools for Conveying Routes

      • Barbara Tversky, Paul U. Lee

      Pages 51-64

   2. Elements of Good Route Directions in Familiar and Unfamiliar Environments

      • Kristin L. Lovelace, Mary Hegarty, Daniel R. Montello

      Pages 65-82

   3. The Production of Route Instructions in Underground and Urban Environments

      • Sylvie Fontaine, Michel Denis

      Pages 83-94

4. Abstraction and Spatial Hierarchies

   1. One Step up the Abstraction Ladder: Combining Algebras - From Functional Pieces to a Whole

      • Andrew U. Frank

      Pages 95-107

   2. Formalizing Regions in the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy: an AH-Graphs implementation approach

      • Emilio Remolina, Juan A. Fernandez, Benjamin Kuipers, Javier Gonzalez

      Pages 109-124

   3. Abstraction, Levels of Detail, and Hierarchies in Map Series

      • Sabine Timpf

      Pages 125-139

   4. Topological Relations in Hierarchical Partitions

      • Stephan Winter

      Pages 141-155

5. Spatial Reasoning Calculi

   1. A Predication Calculus for Qualitative Spatial Representations

      • Carola Eschenbach

      Pages 157-172

   2. Simple Models for Simple Calculi

      • Gérard Ligozat

      Pages 173-188

   3. Terminological Default Reasoning about Spatial Information: A First Step

      • Ralf Möller, Michael Wessel

      Pages 189-204

   4. Reasoning about Cardinal Directions Using Grids as Qualitative Geographic Coordinates

      • Lars Kulik, Alexander Klippel

      Pages 205-220

6. Ontology of Space

   1. The Role of Identity Conditions in Ontology Design

      • Nicola Guarino

      Pages 221-234

   2. Atomicity vs. Infinite Divisibility of Space

      • Claudio Masolo, Laure Vieu

      Pages 235-250

   3. The Mereotopology of Discrete Space

      • Antony Galton

      Pages 251-266

   4. Agglomerations

      • Barry Smith

      Pages 267-282

   5. Ontology and Geographic Objects: An Empirical Study of Cognitive Categorization

      • David M. Mark, Barry Smith, Barbara Tversky

      Pages 283-298

The Conference on Spatial Information Theory – COSIT – grew out of a series of workshops / NATO Advanced Study Institutes / NSF specialist meetings concerned with cognitive and applied aspects of representing large-scale space, particularly geographic space. In these meetings, the need for a well-founded theory of spatial information processing was identified. The COSIT conference series was established in 1993 as a biennial interdisciplinary European conference on the representation and processing of information about large-scale space, after a successful international conference on the topic had been organized by Andrew Frank et al. in Pisa, Italy, in 1992 (frequently referred to as ‘COSIT zero’). After two successful European conferences with strong North-American participation (COSIT ’93, held on the Island of Elba, Italy; COSIT ’95, held in Semmering, Austria), the conference became a truly international enterprise when COSIT ’97 was held in the Laurel Highlands, Pennsylvania, USA. COSIT ’99 will take place in Stade, Germany. All aspects of large-scale space, i. e. spaces too large to be seen from a single vantage point, are addressed in the COSIT conferences. These include spaces of geographic scale, as well as smaller spaces in which humans, animals, or autonomous robots have to find their way around. Spatial information theory also deals with the description of objects, processes, or events in spatial environments and it forms the foundation for the construction of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and for spatial information and communication system design in general.

• Cartography
• Geoinformation
• Navigation
• Spatial Information
• Spatial Reasoning
• Visual Representation
• information theory
• ontology

• Universität Hamburg, Fachbereich Informatik, Hamburg, Germany

  Christian Freksa

• Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA

  David M. Mark

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