Design and comparison of lattices of topological relations for spatial representation and reasoning

Abstract

This paper presents an original approach to qualitative spatial representation and reasoning with topological relations based on the use of lattices of relations. This approach has been developed for spatial reasoning in the domain of agricultural landscape analysis. The paper describes first the motivation of the present research work and the general framework of topological relations. Four different lattices of topological relations, including two Galois lattices, are introduced. The choices made for spatial representation and reasoning with these lattices are discussed, together with a thorough study and comparison of the four lattices. The implementation of one of the Galois lattices within an object-based representation system, as well as spatial lattice-based reasoning with topological relations in this system are then detailed.