COM-based expert system for map projection selection

Abstract

Map projections are attempts to portray the surface of the earth or a portion of the earth onto a flat map surface. This can not be done without any distortions of conformality, distance, direction, scale, and area. There are many map projections, and each of them has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The mapmaker must select the one best suited to their application needs, reducing distortion of the most important features. However, how to select a 'proper' map projection is a complex process involving general evaluation of map projection alternatives based on a set of characteristics that describe these projections. And this process needs a systemic understanding of map projection, which usually can not be achieved by end users. This paper introduced Expert system (ES) to solve this problem, and used Component Objects Model (COM) technology to develop and interoperate the proposed system (developed with Visual Prolog 7.0 Personal Edition®) with professional Geographical Information System (GIS) software. As an essential part of the article, the authors also represented the knowledge, rules and reasoning methods of selecting an appropriate map projection as well. Implementations and examples had been given to testify the feasibility.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.