A Muti-Representation and Generalisation Based Webmapping Approach Using Multi-Agent System Predicates

Over the last decade, an enormous demand for digital maps in different disciplines and fields was stated. Geographical information is currently available at anytime, from anywhere on the surface of the earth, by any person connected to internet. Some applications of design, implementation, generation and dissemination of maps on the Web are recognized as Webmapping. It uses among other things, a Geographic Data Base (GDB) and must be able to provide a fast response time (quasi-real time) and a high quality of visualized information. We propose in this paper, a Webmapping approach which is based on two principles; (1) exploiting an hybrid approach Multiple Representation and Generalisation in storing, handling and generating geographic data and (2) integrating Multi-Agent technology, in all steps of the Webmapping process. The effectiveness assessment of our webmapping approach is performed in ArcGIS environnement 9.3. We present some results of our experimentation which focused on the road network theme.