ABSTRACT
Automatic incremental generalization would make the whole generalization process automatic in a multiple representation environment. The multiple representation problem is briefly discussed. The term incremental generalization has its background in software engineering, which is discussed as well. An alternative proposal is made in order to attack the updating problems in the database environment: incremental generalization. Automatic incremental generalization would make the whole generalization process automatic in a multiple representation environment. In an incremental generalization environment, the generalization process is performed completely for the whole geodatabase only once. Incremental generalization thus requires that the problem can be divided into modules. The principle of incremental generalization relies on the methods used in software engineering. An analysis of the dendogram resulting from the cluster analysis suggested that the lines could be broken into three groups.
