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International Conference on Spatial Information Theory

COSIT 2001: Spatial Information Theory pp 44–59Cite as

A Geometric Theory of Vague Boundaries Based on Supervaluation

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2205))

Abstract

The representation of geographical objects with vague or fuzzy boundaries still poses a challenge to current geographical information systems. The paper presents a geometric account to deal with spatial vagueness. This approach is based on ideas of the theory of supervaluation. To capture vague spatial information current geographical information systems mainly employ fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic. The proposed geometric theory is contrasted with fuzzy theories regarding the representation of vague spatial objects and the inferences that can be drawn about the objects. Opposed to fuzzy theories, the proposed theory does not rely on a numerical representation to model spatial vagueness, but is still compatible with it. Therefore, the approach is able to support spatial databases in qualitative spatial inferences.

The research reported in this paper was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the project ‘Axiomatics of Spatial Concepts’ (Ha 1237-7). I am in particular indebted to Carola Eschenbach, Markus Guhe, Christopher Habel, and Inga Mau for their valuable comments.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Informatics, University of Hamburg, Vogt-Kölln-Str. 30, D-22767, Hamburg, Germany

    Lars Kulik

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  1. Lars Kulik
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Daniel R. Montello

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kulik, L. (2001). A Geometric Theory of Vague Boundaries Based on Supervaluation. In: Montello, D.R. (eds) Spatial Information Theory. COSIT 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2205. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45424-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45424-1_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42613-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45424-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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