Some philosophical issues regarding geometric modeling for geographic information and knowledge systems

Abstract

It is common to state the importance of geometry in geographic information systems. But with the advent of the knowledge society, it is important to revisit some philosophical aspects that were traditionally the backbone of GIS. Indeed, the necessity to build robust systems for automatic geographic reasoning implies that several issues must be reexamined, especially due to the existence of new types of sensors which continuously measure some phenomena under interest: two sensors which will measure any phenomenon will give values a little bit different for various reasons. And we have to integrate those aspects. Now, with the appearance of new systems based on geographic knowledge, mathematic modeling of reality is again in the critical path of research. In this paper, we will examine rapidly the philosophical background of the common modeling used in GIS and try to propose new directions especially in the vision of requirements for geographic knowledge systems.