Formalization of Temporal Thematic Map Contents

In this paper, we will focus on the temporal evolution of thematic maps in order to answer queries that refer to the time varying elements characterizing a thematic map, i.e., the geometric component of the map and the associated alphanumeric information. In this context, we first define through a functional approach (functional in the sense that it uses the function as mathematical structure) the notions of basic and thematic maps and a set of operators for their manipulation. Then, we define a space-time composite functional approach by associating time to the above mentioned notions in order to model the temporal evolution of maps information. In this context, we consider some new temporal operators. Finally, we illustrate the application of the proposed operators through some query examples.