Spatial Information Theory. Cognitive and Computational Foundations of Geographic Information Science [electronic resource] : International Conference COSIT'99 Stade, Germany, August 25-29, 1999 Proceedings /

Landmarks and Navigation -- Large-Scale Navigation: The Insect Case -- Route Navigation Using Motion Analysis -- The Nature of Landmarks for Real and Electronic Spaces -- Route Directions -- Pictorial and Verbal Tools for Conveying Routes -- Elements of Good Route Directions in Familiar and Unfamiliar Environments -- The Production of Route Instructions in Underground and Urban Environments -- Abstraction and Spatial Hierarchies -- One Step up the Abstraction Ladder: Combining Algebras - From Functional Pieces to a Whole -- Formalizing Regions in the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy: an AH-Graphs implementation approach -- Abstraction, Levels of Detail, and Hierarchies in Map Series -- Topological Relations in Hierarchical Partitions -- Spatial Reasoning Calculi -- A Predication Calculus for Qualitative Spatial Representations -- Simple Models for Simple Calculi -- Terminological Default Reasoning about Spatial Information: A First Step -- Reasoning about Cardinal Directions Using Grids as Qualitative Geographic Coordinates -- Ontology of Space -- The Role of Identity Conditions in Ontology Design -- Atomicity vs. Infinite Divisibility of Space -- The Mereotopology of Discrete Space -- Agglomerations -- Ontology and Geographic Objects: An Empirical Study of Cognitive Categorization -- Modes of Connection -- Visual Representation and Reasoning -- Representation and Reasoning about Shapes: Cognitive and Computational Studies in Visual Reasoning in Design -- An Algebraic Interpretation of Semantic Networks -- Data Characterization Schema for Intelligent Support in Visual Data Analysis -- Maps and Routes -- Recognition—Triggered Response and the View—Graph Approach to Spatial Cognition -- A Formal Model of the Process of Wayfinding in Built Environments -- A Spatial Model Based on the Notions of SpatialConceptual Map and of Object’s Influence Areas -- Granularity and Qualitative Abstraction -- Granulation for Graphs -- On Ontology and Epistemology of Rough Location -- Qualitative Spatial Representation for Situational Awareness and Spatial Decision Support -- Qualitative Motion Representation in Egocentric and Allocentric Frames of Reference.

The Conference on Spatial Information Theory – COSIT – grew out of a series of workshops / NATO Advanced Study Institutes / NSF specialist meetings concerned with cognitive and applied aspects of representing large-scale space, particularly geographic space. In these meetings, the need for a well-founded theory of spatial information processing was identified. The COSIT conference series was established in 1993 as a biennial interdisciplinary European conference on the representation and processing of information about large-scale space, after a successful international conference on the topic had been organized by Andrew Frank et al. in Pisa, Italy, in 1992 (frequently referred to as ‘COSIT zero’). After two successful European conferences with strong North-American participation (COSIT ’93, held on the Island of Elba, Italy; COSIT ’95, held in Semmering, Austria), the conference became a truly international enterprise when COSIT ’97 was held in the Laurel Highlands, Pennsylvania, USA. COSIT ’99 will take place in Stade, Germany. All aspects of large-scale space, i. e. spaces too large to be seen from a single vantage point, are addressed in the COSIT conferences. These include spaces of geographic scale, as well as smaller spaces in which humans, animals, or autonomous robots have to find their way around. Spatial information theory also deals with the description of objects, processes, or events in spatial environments and it forms the foundation for the construction of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and for spatial information and communication system design in general.