Towards the development of open cartographic hypermedia systems

Abstract

Despite the evolving technological developments that have influenced spatial information management and communication, digital cartography has to overcome a number of issues concerning cognition and usability. Hypermaps, integrating concepts from geographical information systems and hypermedia systems, have been proposed by many researchers as a promising solution. However, these systems are isolated, without making an attempt for information and services exchange. In this chapter, inspired by previous work on Open Hypermedia Systems, we propose a conceptual reference model for cartographic hypermedia services. As a prerequisite, a number of hypermap systems have been studied, resulting in a set of indispensable requirements.