Automatic simplification of the geometry of a cartographic line using contractive self-mapping – illustrated with an example of a polyline band

The present article is another attempt to adapt map geometry to automatic digital cartography. The paper presents a method of digital polyline generalisation that uses contractive self-mapping. It is a method of simplification, not just an algorithm for simplification. This method in its 1996 version obtained a patent entitled “Method of Eliminating Points in the Process of Numerical Cartographic Generalisation” – Patent Office of the Republic of Poland, No. 181014, 1996. The first results of research conducted using the presented method, with clearly defined data (without singular points of their geometry), were published in the works of the authors in 2021 and 2022.

This article presents a transition from the DLM (Digital Landscape Model) to the DCM (Digital Cartographic Model). It demonstrates an algorithm with independent solutions for the band axis and both its edges. The presented example was performed for the so-called polyline band, which can represent real topographic linear objects such as rivers and boundaries of closed areas (buildings, lakes, etc.). An unambiguous representation of both edges of the band is its axis, represented in DLM, which can be simplified to any scale. A direct consequence of this simplification is the shape of the band representing the actual shape of both edges of the object that is classified in the database as a linear object in DCM.

The article presents an example performed for the so-called polyline band, which represents real topographic linear objects (roads, rivers) and area boundaries. The proposed method fulfils the following conditions: the Lipschitz condition, the Cauchy condition, the Banach theorem, and the Salichtchev’s standard for object recognition on the map. The presented method is objective in contrast to the previously used approximate methods, such as generalisations that use graph theory and fractal geometry, line smoothing and simplification algorithms, statistical methods with classification of object attributes, artificial intelligence, etc. The presented method for changing the geometry of objects by any scale of the map is 100% automatic, repeatable, and objective; that is, it does not require a cartographer’s intervention.