Small‐area patch‐merging method accounting for both local constraints and the overall area balance

Small‐area patch merging is a common operation in land use data generalization. However, existing research on small‐area patch merging has mainly focused on local compatibility measures, which often lead to area imbalances among land use types from a global perspective. To address the shortcomings of previous studies by resolving local and global concerns simultaneously, this article proposes a merging method that considers both local constraints and the overall area balance. First, a local optimization model that considers three constraints—namely, the areas of neighboring patches, the lengths of shared arcs, and semantic similarity—is established. The areas of small patches are first pre‐allocated. Subsequently, in accordance with an area change threshold for individual land use types, land use types with area changes that exceed this threshold are identified. The patches corresponding to these land use types are subjected to iterative adjustments while considering the overall area balance. Based on their area splitting abilities, the split lines for small‐area patches are determined, and small‐area patches are merged. Finally, actual data from Guangdong Province are used for validation. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is capable of preserving the local compatibility of patches while balancing the overall area associated with each land use type.