Pictorial deduction in spatial information systems

Though visual access to spatial database systems has attracted much attention in recent years, only few deductive visual languages for spatial information systems have been proposed. One reason for this may be that most of the spatial visual languages stick to the classical metaphor of map manipulation. We argue that more powerful metaphors are needed to facilitate the development of pictorial languages for spatial deduction that are readily comprehensible and formally manageable at the same time. This paper introduces a fully deductive pictorial language for spatial information based on sketching