Acquiring, Representing and Processing Spatial Relations

The study of spatial relations has been an important research topic in a number of different domains. As a result several relation-based systems have been developed to represent and process spatial relations. This paper identifies the concepts underlying the representation of spatial relations and outlines the processes involved in relation-based information processing. In the paper we also discuss the need for alternative forms of relation-based representations, and describe the applicability of the results of various scientific areas to the geographic domain