A multi-level data structure for vector maps

In GIS many hierarchical data structures have been proposed to store spatial objects at different levels of detail (LoD). However, maintaining topological consistency between the different LoD remains a major challenge. In this paper we describe a new hierarchical data structure for multiple representations of implicitly consistent vector datasets. The sequence of representations is encoded in a compact way whereby only the dataset corresponding to the coarsest level is explicitly stored while subsequent levels just contain new objects and more refined representations of existing objects. Such a data structure encodes vertical links for efficient navigation between levels and for fast reconstruction of intermediate levels.