Dynamic cartography: A concept for multidimensional point symbols

Abstract

The exponential increase of acquired and managed geospatial data during the last decades, and the development of new hard-and software frameworks are two main drivers which have facilitated technological innovation in computer–animated cartography and cartographic animation (CA). In the Earth sciences cartographic animation are used for investigations, analyses and visual validation of complex settings and allow depicting a higher level of information by combining spatial data and attributes from different sources. To accomplish this, GIS technology is commonly used for processing, management and the presentation of spatial data. Despite the broad application field of GIS technology, temporal, i.e. dynamic, information is usually not covered in full depth and it remains challenging to manage and visualize such information in the same way as spatial information. Consequently, spatiotemporal data models need to be developed and adopted for each individual case by building an underlying structure which allows relating spatial geometry to cartographic as well as thematic attributes, including time. This contribution tries to discuss and establish a conceptual basis for a data model that allows connecting spatial data primitives with temporal attributes in order to manage, query and visualize the animation of map objects on a higher level.