Consistency among parts and aggregates: A computational model

Heterogeneous geographic databases contain multiple views of the same geographic objects at different levels of spatial resolution. When users perceive geographic objects as one spatial unit, although they are physically separated into multiple parts, appropriate methods are needed to assess the consistency among the aggregate and the parts. The critical aspect is that the overall spatial relationships with respect to other geographic objects must be preserved throughout the aggregation process. We developed a systematic model for the constraints that must hold with respect to other spatial objects when two parts of an object are aggregated. We found three sets of configurations that require increasingly more information in order to make a precise statement about their consistency: (1) configurations that are satisfied by the topological relations between the two parts and the object of interest; (2) configurations that need further information about the topological relation between the object of concern and the connector in order to be resolved unambiguously; and (3) configurations that require additional information about the topological relation between the aggregate's boundary and the boundary or interior of the object of interest to be uniquely described. The formalism extends immediately to relations between two regions with disconnected parts as well as to relations between a region and an arbitrary number of separations.