ABSTRACT
A possible procedure for model generalization of digital terrain models is demonstrated in Weibel. The study of the traditional cartographic literature can provide a natural starting point for the development of methods for evaluating generalization alternatives. Both quantitative and qualitative criteria must first of all allow us to compare different generalization alternatives, and eventually make it possible to judge and rank different solutions consistently. Digital object models are being established in many European countries and elsewhere. Cartographic generalization means increasing the readability of a spatial model by diminishing its semantic information content and by graphically coding the information which is useful for the application of interest, i.e. the pragmatic information content is optimized. Digital maps only serve in many applications but are expected to be valuable sources for extracting explicit knowledge for generalization. Ongoing research has the goal of improving the generalization algorithms, the parameter values for displacement.
