First-order rule induction for the recognition of morphological patterns in topographic maps

Information given in topographic map legends or in GIS models is often insufficient to recognize interesting geographical patterns. Some prototypes of GIS have already been extended with a knowledge-base and some reasoning capabilities to support sophisticated map interpretation processes. Nevertheless, the acquisition of the necessary knowledge is still an open problem to which machine learning techniques can provide a solution. This paper presents an application of first-order rule induction to pattern recognition in topographic maps. Research issues related to the extraction of first-order logic descriptions from vectorized topographic maps are introduced. The recognition of morphological patterns in topographic maps of the Apulia region is presented as a case study.