Workshop of the ICA Commission on Map Generalisation and Multiple Representation – June 25 th 2006 Workflow Management and Generalisation Services

In the domain of map production two trends are currently noticeable. On the one hand, a continued automation of the processes for derivation of traditional, analogue paper maps, and on the other, functions for delivering dynamic maps in web mapping and mobile applications e.g. on PDAs. In these scenarios identical geo data of one reference scale provides the basis for the specific maps. The derivation is based on generalisation employing different functions. To provide this functionality independent from operating system and programming languages the concept of web services are applied to the field of automated generalisation (Neun et al., 2006; Burghardt et al., 2005a). These allow the integration of external generalisation functionality in existing GIS and map production systems, without changing the developed production runs. Ideas about web services are discussed on the international generalisation workshops of the “ICA Commission on Generalisation and Multiple Representation“. An important scientific question under the topic of cartographic generalisation is the automated selection, chaining and parameterisation of generalisation functions. Until now there are only a few scientific publications treating this problem. One reason is that experiments can only be carried out with an extensive set of generalisation functions, often not available on one platform. Wort