Map Polygon-Polygon Objects Spatial Conflicts Solution Using Simulated Annealing

Displaying map data at scales smaller than its source can result in objects that are either too small to be seen or too close to each other to be distinguishable. Furthermore, map conflicts become more likely when certain map symbols are no longer a true scale representation of the feature they represent. Map generalization involves careful examination of the interactions between all map symbols. These interactions may give rise to obvious spatial conflicts of proximity and overlap. Most cases of spatial conflicts can be resolved by displacement, whereas displacement is a very complex operation, which involves the type definitions, constraint conditions, direction and the size of the displacement and so on. As the simulated annealing method has its unique advantages in directing object displacement, in this paper, we guide the displacement of conflicted objects using simulated annealing. It is tested on a number of data sets and the result of experiment shows that the simulated annealing algorithm presented here works well.