Abstract
The necessity to divide the analysed area into basic elements, regardless of the administrative division (cells or pixels, also called primary fields), and use them to prepare thematic maps emerged as early as by the end of the 19th century. The automation of map development processes brought a new approach to the function of cells, which made them a carrier that facilitates information processing, and presenting the results of analyses in the form of studies that very often function only in spatial information systems or on the Internet. Cells are currently used to conduct a series of advanced spatial analyses in practically all areas of application. The aim of the presented research was to analyse the influence of the shape and size of cells on the terrain classification results for the purposes of developing military passability maps. The research used the automatic terrain classification method, based on calculating the index of passability, calculated for cells of square, triangular, and hexagonal shapes and of different sizes, ranging from 100 m to 10,000 m. Indices of passability were determined basing on parameters derived from land cover elements that exist in the area of each of the adopted cells. Because of the fact that passability maps are mainly developed for military purposes, the study used a standardised vector spatial database—VMap Level 2. The studies have demonstrated that, if the surface areas of cells are identical, their shapes do not have a significant influence on the resulting passability map. The authors have also determined the sizes of cells that should be adopted for developing passability maps on various levels of accuracy, and, as a consequence, for being used on various levels of command of military troops.
Highlights
Frequent changes in the delimitations of the administrative division, which constitute a kind of natural reference units for spatial information, as well as the lack of such divisions on a higher level of detail, resulted in the need to use such reference units that are free from such disadvantages
The analysis of cartographic materials used by the Polish Armed Forces resulted in the creation of a military passability map generated by marking NO GO and SLOW GO areas manually on the analysed area
The analysis of cartographic materials used by the Polish Armed Forces resulted in the creation of a military passability map generated by marking NO GO and SLOW GO areas manually on the ISPaRnSaInlyt.sJe.dGeao-rIenaf..2F01ig8,u7r,e26112 shows fragments of this map divided into thematic categories and th16eiorf 27 comparison with passability maps generated for a square cell of the side length of 200 m
Summary
Frequent changes in the delimitations of the administrative division, which constitute a kind of natural reference units for spatial information, as well as the lack of such divisions on a higher level of detail, resulted in the need to use such reference units that are free from such disadvantages. One of the ways to solve these problems was to divide the area of interest into elementary units organized in regular cells, treated as a spatial reference field. The automation of map generating processes brought a new approach to the function of spatial reference fields These fields, previously treated only as one of the ways of spatial identification and recording of information, suddenly started to play an important role as information carriers. Even more, they became a carrier whose structure provided a basis for facilitating information processing and presenting information in the form of cartographic thematic studies. The latter may focus on land topography, soil cover [6], or vegetation [7], and are just a few of the numerous examples of multi-aspect analyses conducted with the use of cells
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