On-demand base maps on the web generalized according to user profiles

Abstract

Thematic content in the form of geodata is becoming increasingly available on the web. However, adequate base map information to support appropriate communication of the thematic content is not available in many cases. This base map information might be served through topographic databases available on the web and optimized by means of automated generalization. This article describes an approach based on user profiles, which formally captures the user requirements (preferences) towards the base map and deploys those profiles in a web-based architecture to generate on-demand maps. Those user profiles, which may differ per user, drive the generalization process and produce base maps on demand by taking into account the user requirements as well as the thematic content. The research in this article specifically focuses on the technological environment that generates on-demand base maps incorporating four basic concepts in the user profile: (1) topology awareness between the base map and the thematic content, (2) user-specific base map information at a non-uniform scale to improve the communication of the thematic content, (3) the map specification and (4) inheritance of user profiles. Both existing and new techniques are explored to realize the environment. The approach is evaluated by applying it to a project in the Netherlands dedicated to disseminating physical planning maps through the web.

Designing across map use contexts: a research agenda

“…Various design strategies might allow a design to be transferable between devices or users or activities. For example, multiscale representation has been a subject of much research over the past 10 years, with attention to the design of multiscale representations for a variety of map use activities, including for use on mobile devices (Harrie, Sarjakoski, & Lehto, 2002), for serving base maps to contextualize thematic webmaps (Foerster, Stoter, & van Oosterom, 2012), and in the production of national topographic maps (Brewer & Buttenfield, 2007). In visual analytics, multiple representations are typically brought to bear on an (often) ill-structured problem.…”

Abstracting Geographic Information in a Data Rich World

“…The general idea is to build a system that can easily integrate data from different sources, and generalise them together to obtain a map as specified by the user. The general idea has been described in (Regnauld 2007), and refined since (Foerster et al 2012). (Balley and Regnauld 2012) proposes an architecture for such a system which decouples its main components.…”

“…By not adding such a tag, the client knows that the process might run continuously. Further details such as the playlist format encoding, the implementation are described in (Foerster et al 2012). As described, Web Services face a challenge of providing the most-current data as soon as it is available.…”

A robust framework for topological relations in the on-the-fly web map generalisation process

“…The objective of this project consists to illustrate the state of the art of automated generalisation in practice, exchange of knowledge between research community, NMAs and software vendor and to contribute to the development of constraint specification. Foerster et al (2012) propose an approach based on user profiles, which formally captures the user requirements (preferences) towards the base map and deploys those profiles in a web-based architecture to generate on-demand maps. Duchêne et al (2012) present a new agent-based generalisation model called CARTACOM.…”