Framework for entropy-based map evaluation

The automation of map design is a challenging task for both researchers and designers of spatial information systems. A main problem in automation is the quantification and formalization of the properties of the process to be automated. This article contributes to the formalization of some steps in the processes involved in map design and demonstrates how the Shannon information theory (Shannon and Weaver 1964) can be used to compute an evaluation index of a map, i.e., a parameter which measures the efficiency of the map. Throughout this article, the term ″information″ is mostly used in a narrow sense and the application of information theory is restricted to the syntactic level of cartographic communication. Information sources for map entropy computations are identified and elaborated on. A special class of map information sources are defined and termed ″orthogonal map information sources″. Further, a strategy to consider spatial properties of a map in entropy computations is presented. At the end of the article, some examples demonstrate how the channel capacity and other entropy related measures can be computed and used to control automated processes for map design or map generalization.