ScaleMaster.org: Illustrating and constructing the multi-scale mapping process

Multi-scale mapping describes the cartographic practice of providing integrated, legible designs of the same geographic themes at numerous scales (Spaccapietra et al. 2000). The process of multi-scale map design in many cases is a manual one full of repetitive tasks, and often the impact of these choices on the total workload is unclear as they are made. The quality and efficiency of a multi-scale mapping project that maintains map legibility can be improved, however, by identification and maintenance of key scales, termed decision points, requiring one or several kinds of modifications, termed multi-scale mapping operators, that are applied to the represented feature types. This approach addresses multiple challenges of multi-scale mapping: (1) it is not feasible to capture data at each desired scale because of time, cost, and storage constraints; (2) it is not efficient to capture or maintain data at each desired scale because of data redundancy; (3) it is not possible to capture data at each desired scale when the mapping implementation needs to meet demands for an infinite and dynamic rang