this paper is to introduce a hierarchy of languages intended for qualitative spatio-temporal representation and reasoning, provide these languages with topological temporal semantics, construct effective reasoning algorithms, and estimate their computational complexity.

The theoretical properties of qualitative spatial reasoning in the RCC-8 framework have been analyzed extensively. However, no empirical investigation has been made yet. Our experiments show that the adaption of the algorithms used for qualitative temporal reasoning can solve large RCC-8 instances, even if they are in the phase transition region -- provided that one uses the maximal tractable subsets of RCC-8 that have been identified by us. In particular, we demonstrate that the orthogonal combination of heuristic methods is successful in solving almost all apparently hard instances in the phase transition region up to a certain size in reasonable time.

In this paper, we construct and investigate a hierarchy of spatio-temporal formalisms that result from various combinations of propositional spatial and temporal logics such as the propositional temporal logic the spatial logics RCC-8, BRCC-8, S4 u and their fragments. The obtained results give a clear picture of the trade-off between expressiveness and `computational realisability' within the hierarchy. We demonstrate how di#erent combining principles as well as spatial and temporal primitives can produce NP-, PSPACE-, EXPSPACE-, 2EXPSPACE-complete, and even undecidable spatio-temporal logics out of components that are at most NP- or PSPACE-complete.

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This research seeks to contribute to advancing qualitative methodologies at the intersection of qualitative geographic information systems (GIS), narrative analysis, 3D GIS-based time-geographic methods, and computer-aided qualitative data analysis. The approach to GIS-based narrative analysis developed in the study, called "geo-narrative," is based on extending current GIS capabilities for the analysis and interpretation of narrative materials such as oral histories, life histories, and biographies. The three central elements in this approach are (1) narrative analysis as the qualitative approach; (2) 3D GIS-based time-geographic methods as the representational framework; and (3) 3D-VQGIS as the GIS-based computer-aided qualitative data analysis component. A case example based on a study of the lives of the Muslim women in Columbus, Ohio, after 11 September 2001 is used to illustrate the approach. Key Words: 3D-VQGIS, CAQDAS, geo-narrative, narrative analysis, qualitative GIS. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo contribuir al avance de las metodologías cualitativas que se encuentran en la intersección de los sistemas de información geográfica (GIS, SIG) cualitativa, el análisis narrativo, los métodos tridimensionales, temporales geográficos basados en GIS y los análisis de datos cualitativos auxiliados por computadora. El acercamiento al análisis narrativo basado en GIS desarrollado en el estudio y llamado "geonarrativo" se basa en la ampliación de las capacidades actuales del GIS para el análisis e interpretación de materiales narrativos tales como historias orales, historias de vidas y biografías. Los tres elementos centrales de este acercamiento son (1) el análisis narrativo como el acercamiento cualitativo; (2) métodos tridimensionales, temporales geográficos basados en GIS como el marco figurativo; y (3) VQGIS tridimensionales como el componente de análisis cualitativo de datos auxiliado por computadora y basado en GIS. Para ilustrar este acercamiento, se usa un ejemplo basado en un estudio de la vida de las mujeres musulmanas en Columbus, Ohio, después del 11 de septiembre de 2001. Yet the earliest attempts to use GIS data and methods in qualitative research were made by participatory GIS researchers (e.g., Informed by these developments in PPGIS research, there are also important developments in qualitative GIS methodologies in human geography in recent years. In some studies, GIS-based data analysis, mapping, and visualization are deployed to complement or triangulate (i.e., verify results using multiple data sources) the knowledge acquired through the qualitative component of the research. Geo-Narrative: Extending Geographic Information Systems for Narrative Analysis 445 knowledge provided by GIS data and people's partial knowledge revealed through qualitative methods such as oral histories and participant observation (e.g., Heasley 2003; In addition to using GIS data and analyses to complement, triangulate, or interpret the knowledge acquired from qualitative data, geographers have envisaged qualitative GIS methodologies that go beyond the static and Cartesian framework of current GIS. Important developments in this direction include multimedia and Internet GIS, which seek to enhance the knowledge production process of qualitative or mixed-method research through incorporating a wide variety of textual and nontextual materials (audios, photos, videos, and narratives) into GIS (e.g., In much of this literature, the conceptual basis and the analytical approach remain largely implicit. This has started to change with recent contributions such as those included in the special issue on qualitative GIS coedited by Explicit discussion of the qualitative approach adopted and the analytical process (including validation and verification procedures) in these studies goes a long way in addressing the concern for rigor in qualitative research 1 For nontextual materials such as photos and voice clips, this 446 Volume 60, Number 4, November 2008 mode of integration poses little problem for the analytical process, but as textual materials such as interview transcripts and field notes are also linked as external files, specific contents of these textual materials (e.g., particular segments of text) cannot be linked to specific geographic features in the GIS database and analyzed within the GIS. As there are no qualitative data analysis capabilities in current GIS, analysis and interpretation of the textual data (e.g., coding, relationship building, and theory building) are performed outside the GIS in these studies using computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) such as ATLAS.ti and NUD*IST (e.g., 2 This article seeks to address this limitation of recent approaches through exploring a more direct approach to incorporating and analyzing qualitative data in GIS: building qualitative data analysis capabilities in GIS. To accomplish this, we conceptualize, design, and implement a 3D geovisualization and qualitative analysis component, called 3D-VQGIS, in ArcGIS, drawing on the design and analytical capabilities of contemporary CAQDAS. The component aims at facilitating the interactive exploration, interpretation, and 3D geovisualization of qualitative data and materials. Further, as recent qualitative GIS research has explored the integration of grounded theory and ethnography with GIS-based analysis, we focus on another broad qualitative approach that has received only limited attention in this literature to date: narrative analysis or narrative inquiry-which studies the stories people told about their lived experiences of events and major turning points in their lives over a certain period of time As the chronology of people's experience and the sequence of events are central elements in narrative analysis, GIS-based analysis of narratives needs to address not only the spatial dimension but also the temporal dimension of these materials. To achieve this, we draw on recent advances in 3D GIS-based time-geographic methods to provide the representational framework for integrating narrative analysis with GIS. Based on this framework, this study seeks to contribute to advancing qualitative methodologies in geography at the intersection of qualitative GIS, narrative analysis, 3D GIS-based time-geographic methods, and computer-aided qualitative data analysis. This mode of GIS-based narrative analysis is enabled through extending current GIS capabilities for qualitative data analysis. We call this approach "geo-narrative," which was developed to facilitate the creation and interpretation of contextualized cartographic or visual narratives (Kwan

ABSTRACT. A topological constraint language is a formal language whose variables range over certain subsets of topological spaces, and whose nonlogical primitives are interpreted as topological relations and functions taking these subsets as arguments. Thus, topological constraint languages typically allow us to make assertions such as “region touches the boundary of region ”, “region is connected ” or “region is a proper part of the closure of region ”. A formula in a topological constraint language is said to be satisfiable if there exists an assignment to its variables of regions from some topological space under which is made true. This paper introduces a topological constraint language which, in addition to the usual mechanisms for expressing Boolean combinations of regions and their topological closures, includes primitives for bounding the number of components of a region. We call this language, a rough acronym for “topological constraint language with component counting”. (Thus, extends earlier topological constraint languages based on the so-called RCC-primitives.) Our main result is that the problem of determining the satisfiability of a-formula is NEXPTIME-complete.

Abstract. The recent availability of geospatial information as linked open data has generated new interest in geospatial query processing and reasoning, a topic with a long tradition of research in the areas of databases and artificial intelligence. In this paper we survey recent ad-vances in this important research topic, concentrating on issues of data modeling and querying. 1

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Topology is the most commonly used spatial construct to bridge the gap between formal spatial information theory and systems on the one side and (human) spatial cognition and thinking on the other. To this end, we find topological calculi in virtually all research areas pertinent to spatial information science such as ontological modeling, geographic information retrieval, image analysis and classification. Manifold experiments have been conducted to assess the cognitive adequacy of topological calculi with varying results. Our contribution here is unique for two reasons: on the one hand, we are addressing, behaviorally, the role of topology in the crucial area of spatio-temporal information; on the other hand, we are evaluating the role of topology across different semantic domains. We report five experiments that were conducted in the framework we developed (Klippel and Li 2009), which combine critical constructs from spatial information theory and cognitive science. Topologically equivalent movement patterns were specified across five domains using paths through a conceptual neighborhood graph. This approach allows us to disentangle the role of topology from the influence of semantic context. The results show that topology plays an important yet not semantic-independent role in characterizing the cognitive conceptualization of geographic events.

In this article, we describe the potential utility of the card sorting method for structuring and refining large map symbol sets. Simply defined, card sorting requires that participants organize a set of items (i.e., cards) into categories according to some characteristic(s) of the cards (i.e., the sorting criterion). Card sorting has been proposed as a method for delineating categories by researchers and practitioners in a variety of disciplines due to its ability to identify and explicate real or perceived structures in an information space; despite this, there is little reported application of card sorting within Cartography. To facilitate application of card sorting to cartographic problems, we offer a framework that prescribes the appropriate experimental design settings for the method based on the stage in the design process and the goals of the study. We then demonstrate the utility of card sorting for Cartography by describing a closed sorting study we conducted on the ANSI INCITS 415-2006 emergency mapping symbol standard. Our approach helped us identify several barriers to using the symbol standard, including areas of conceptual overlap among the categories included in the standard, potentially missing categories from the standard, and individual symbols in the standard that are consistently misclassified. 1.