Qualitative Spatial Change

by Galton, Antony

• ISBN13: 9780198233978
• ISBN10: 0198233973
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book is a contribution to the emerging discipline of Qualitative Spatial Information Theory. This theory will cover time, space, objects in space, their spatial attributes, changes in those attributes, and the temporal structure of those changes. Each of these topics is covered separately in this book, and a theory of qualitative spaces as partitions of quantitative spaces is developed in detail and applied to numerous particular cases.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(34)
Who cares about spatial change?	1	(2)
The plan of this book	3	(1)
The nature of qualitative representations	4	(14)
Phase spaces and mode spaces	18	(5)
Idealization	23	(6)
Granularity	29	(5)
Space	34	(69)
Places and spaces	34	(1)
Axiomatic geometry	35	(9)
Point-set topology	44	(14)
Topology without points	58	(12)
Mereotopology	70	(19)
Discrete space	89	(13)
Summary	102	(1)
Objects	103	(40)
Matter and material objects	103	(7)
Formalizing the ontology of material objects	110	(6)
Parasitic objects	116	(3)
Perspectival objects	119	(2)
Natural and conventional objects	121	(8)
Objects with indeterminate boundaries	129	(3)
Alternative bases for classifying objects	132	(9)
Summary	141	(2)
Spatial Attributes and Relations	143	(62)
Dimension	144	(2)
Connectivity	146	(10)
Position	156	(1)
Location	157	(17)
Orientation	174	(2)
Size	176	(3)
Shape	179	(22)
Posture	201	(1)
Spatial attributes that are not purely geometrical	202	(2)
Summary	204	(1)
Time and Change	205	(64)
Absolute and relational theories of time	205	(2)
States, processes, and events	207	(8)
Time itself: an absolute temporal framework	215	(36)
Fluents and events	251	(17)
Summary	268	(1)
Varieties of Spatial Change	269	(36)
Change in dimension	269	(1)
Change in connectivity	270	(10)
Change in location	280	(13)
Change in orientation	293	(2)
Change in size	295	(1)
Change in shape	296	(5)
Change in posture	301	(1)
Change in non-geometrical spatial attributes	302	(1)
Summary	303	(2)
Continuity	305	(36)
Varieties of continuity	305	(4)
Measuring the separation between two regions	309	(9)
Comparison of the separation measures	318	(5)
Different kinds of continuous change	323	(3)
Continuity and fusion	326	(5)
Case studies of continuous spatial change	331	(9)
Summary	340	(1)
Qualitative Continuity	341	(39)
Phase spaces revisited	342	(2)
Conceptual neighbourhood as a relation on mode space	344	(1)
The topological approach to continuity	345	(5)
A theory of topological mode spaces	350	(6)
Constructing new TM spaces from old	356	(13)
Further applications of the TM space theorems	369	(10)
Summary	379	(1)
Bibliography	380	(14)
Index of Special Symbols	394	(2)
Index	396