Qualitative Spatial Reasoning: Cardinal Directions as an Example

ABSTRACT Abstract. Geographers use spatial reasoning extensively in large-scale spaces, i.e., spaces that cannot be seen or understood from a single point of view. Spatial reasoning differentiates several spatial relations, e.g. topological or metric relations, and is typically formalized using a Cartesian coordinate system and vector algebra. This quantitative processing of information is clearly different from the ways human draw conclusions about spatial relations. Formalized qualitative reasoning processes are shown to be a necessary part of Spatial Expert Systems and Geographical Information Systems. Addressing a subset of the total problem, namely reasoning with cardinal directions, a completely qualitative method, without recourse to analytical procedures, is introduced and a method for its formal comparison with quantitative formula is defined. The focus is on the analysis of cardinal directions and their properties. An algebraic method is used to formalize the meaning of directions. The standard ...

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