[CF5b] Elements of geographic information

The concepts below form the basic elements of common human conceptions of geographic phenomena. Concepts from many units in this knowledge area have been synthesized to create general conceptual models of geographic information. Attempts to resolve the object-field debate have led to attempts to create comprehensive models that bridge these views. Consideration of this unit should also include formal models of these elements in mathematics and other fields. Knowledge Area DM Data Modeling discusses the representation of these elements in digital models.

External resources

• Berry, B. J. L. (1964) Approaches to regional analysis: a synthesis. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 54, 2-11.
  Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1964.tb00469.x
• Couclelis, H. (1992) People manipulate objects (but cultivate fields): Beyond the raster-vector debate in GIS. In A. U. Frank, I. Campari, and U. Formentini, (Eds.),Theories and methods of spatio-temporal reasoning in geographic space. (65-77). Berlin: Springer Verlag
  Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1007/3-540-55966-3_3
• Hagerstrand, T. (1970) What about people in regional science? Papers, Regional Science Association, 24, 1-21.
  Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1007/bf01936872
• Mennis, J. L., Peuquet, D.J., and Qian, L. (2000). A conceptual framework for incorporating cognitive principles into geographical database representation. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 14, 501-520.
  Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1080/136588100415710
• Peuquet, D. J. (1994). Its about time: A conceptual framework for the representation of temporal dynamics in geographic information systems. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 84, 441-61.
  Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1994.tb01869.x
• Sinton, D. (1978) The inherent structure of information as a constraint to analysis: Mapped thematic data as a case study. In Dutton, G. (Ed.), Harvard Papers in GIS #7. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
• Yuan, M. (1999) Use of a three-domain representation to enhance GIS support for complex spatiotemporal queries. Transactions in GIS, 3, 137-159.
  Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1111/1467-9671.00012

Learning outcomes

• 1980 - Recommend for what applications we should use a field or an object-base approach.

  Recommend for what applications we should use a field or an object-base approach.

Self assessment

Outgoing relations

• [CF5b] Elements of geographic information subclassof [CF] Conceptual Foundations

Incoming relations

• [CF5-1b] Discrete entities subclassof [CF5b] Elements of geographic information
• [CF5-2b] Fields subclassof [CF5b] Elements of geographic information
• [CF5-3b] Events and processes subclassof [CF5b] Elements of geographic information
• [CF5-4b] Integrated models subclassof [CF5b] Elements of geographic information

Contributors

• Rob Lemmens
  University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC)
  https://research.utwente.nl/en/persons/rob-lemmens