A Constraint Model for Analyzing the Evolution of Topological Relationships at Different Scales

Topological relationships present some important information for describing the relative position of objects. From a mathematical point of view, topological relationships are invariant at different scales. However, in practice, they may be changed for diverse reasons, such as the limitation of digital devices. These different topological relationships concerning the same objets can cause inconsistencies when answering to queries in a multidatabase environment. In this paper, a constraint model for analyzing the possible changes of topological relationships in spatial datasets at different scales is presented. With development of the Internet, people have more opportunities to use various spatial datasets at different scales. This work can be applied to analyze the inconsistencies of interoperations among different spatial datasets in this environment. In spite of the studies focusing on spatial datasets, the result also agrees with Euzenat’s work about granularity analysis on temporal relationship (Euzenat 1993, and 1995).