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of cartographical knowledge. There exist some attempts to design a comprehensive
ontology. This effort nevertheless collides with different cartographical schools and
nomenclatures.
E. Pantaleáo (2003) presented a simple proposal of cartographic ontology in her dissertation
work. This ontology concerns only basic class as map symbols, variables of symbols, shape
of features and category of attribute data (nominal, ordinal and numeric). There are no
classes about cartographic methods (graduated point method, choropleth method) and
about main components (elements) of maps (map title, map area, legend, north arrow, scale,
and imprint).
Interesting results in cartographical ontology development can be found in the Institute of
Cartography, EHT Zurich (Enescu & Hurni, 2007). Their cartographic ontology is centered
on map concepts, graphic elements, visual variables and symbols. Furthermore, their
cartographic domain ontology also focuses on the complexity of map semiotics because of
the fact that different types of thematic maps (choropleth maps, graduated symbol maps,
multi-variable graduated symbol maps, dot density maps, etc.) can be defined. Some
details of the domain ontology such as thematic point symbols like diagrams (bar charts,
pie charts, ring charts …) as well as some of their properties (divergent, divided, polar,
proportional …) and some additional concepts - are arranged in the logical hierarchy. All
these aspects were included in their proposed ontology. The latest research at the field of
cartographical ontology can be traced at University of Georgia (Smith, 2010). The basic
concept is similar to our CartoExpert ontology; however, there are several aspects which
differ.
Fig. 6. Detail of domain ontology from the Institute of Cartography, Zurich
