Knowledge-Guided Map Representation and Understanding

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Geosciences and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
Interests: cartography; schematic map representation; information visualization

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Guest Editor
National Geomatics Center of China, Beijing, China
Interests: spatial knowledge services; geographic information systems; spatial-temporal knowledge visualization and service

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Guest Editor
School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
Interests: spatio-temporal data mining; map generalization; large language model

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Geosciences and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
Interests: intelligent cartography; geography complexity analysis

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Geomatics, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, China
Interests: map generalization; spatial similarity relation measurement; scale transformation; spatial analysis and spatial information visualization; geographic information engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Maps serve as crucial tools for revealing socio-economic and natural phenomena, as well as uncovering cognitive patterns in spatio-temporal distributions. Generating effective map representations based on spatio-temporal and semantic knowledge and enabling automated map understanding are key to enhancing user‑centric map usability. Recent advances in AI, particularly deep learning and large language models (LLMs), have significantly propelled progress toward these goals. 

This Special Issue delves into the mutual construction of knowledge and map representation. One direction examines how spatio-temporal data, semantic structures, cognitive models, and cartographic design knowledge can be transformed into task-oriented map representations. The other investigates the automatic extraction of structured knowledge from these maps to support map design and visualization, spatial reasoning, semantic QA services, and intelligent decision‑making. We welcome interdisciplinary submissions that combine theory, methodology, modeling, and applications across cognitive cartography, representation design, computer vision, knowledge graphs, and multimodal foundation models, aiming to advance the symbiotic evolution of map representation and knowledge service under the influence of intelligent technologies. 

Topics of Interest (include but are not limited to):

  • Knowledge-driven cartography representation;
  • Hybrid-intelligent map design, generation, service, and applications;
  • Cognitive and perceptual foundations of spatial visualization;
  • Automatic extraction of spatial-temporal and cartography knowledge from maps;
  • Automatic map interpretation and understanding;
  • Spatial question answering and reasoning using cartographic sources;
  • Map-based training data for large language or vision-language models;
  • Human–map interaction and visual reasoning;
  • Integration of spatial knowledge and cartographic representations in digital twins.

Prof. Dr. Peng Ti
Prof. Dr. Wanzeng Liu
Prof. Dr. Wenhao Yu
Dr. Tian Lan
Dr. Wende Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • map representation
  • map understanding
  • cartography
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • spatio-temporal knowledge
  • semantic knowledge
  • knowledge extraction

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1972 KB  
Article
Automatic Reconstruction of 3D Building Models from ALS Point Clouds Based on Façade Geometry
by Tingting Zhao, Tao Xiong, Muzi Li and Zhilin Li
ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2025, 14(12), 462; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi14120462 - 25 Nov 2025
Viewed by 357
Abstract
Three-dimensional (3D) building models are essential for urban planning, spatial analysis, and virtual simulations. However, most reconstruction methods based on Airborne LiDAR Scanning (ALS) rely primarily on rooftop information, often resulting in distorted footprints and the omission of façade semantics such as windows [...] Read more.
Three-dimensional (3D) building models are essential for urban planning, spatial analysis, and virtual simulations. However, most reconstruction methods based on Airborne LiDAR Scanning (ALS) rely primarily on rooftop information, often resulting in distorted footprints and the omission of façade semantics such as windows and doors. To address these limitations, this study proposes an automatic 3D building reconstruction method driven by façade geometry. The proposed method introduces three key contributions: (1) a façade-guided footprint generation strategy that eliminates geometric distortions associated with roof projection methods; (2) robust detection and reconstruction of façade openings, enabling reliable identification of windows and doors even under sparse ALS conditions; and (3) an integrated volumetric modeling pipeline that produces watertight models with embedded façade details, ensuring both structural accuracy and semantic completeness. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves geometric deviations at the decimeter level and feature recognition accuracy exceeding 97%. On average, the reconstruction time of a single building is 91 s, demonstrating reliable reconstruction accuracy and satisfactory computational performance. These findings highlight the potential of the method as a robust and scalable solution for large-scale ALS-based urban modeling, offering substantial improvements in both structural precision and semantic richness compared with conventional roof-based approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Knowledge-Guided Map Representation and Understanding)
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