Spatial queries with qualitative locations in spatial information systems

Abstract

We discuss locations as defined by their qualitative spatial relations to other features, dubbed qualitative locations (QL). We further propose a mechanism to handle queries with qualitative locations in geospatial information systems. For the realization of the mechanism for QL-based queries, we propose a conceptual framework that takes advantage of models of qualitative spatial reasoning to bridge the gap between conventional metric spatial information systems and the general publicÕs common-sense query of spatial relations in natural language. Ó 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd