Enriching the Qualitative Spatial Reasoning System RCC8

Topological Models As Basis Of The Rcc8 System

In this section, we will give an overview about the topological models as basis of the RCC8 system. The topological relations can describe a type of qualitative spatial information between spatial regions. In a two-dimensional space (IR²), most topological existing models can distinguish the eight basic topological relations of the RCC8 system (Region Connection Calculus) (Randell, et al., 1992a).

For region-region topological relations, the most representative models are 4-intersection model developed by Egenhofer (Egenhofer, 1989; Egenhofer & Franzosa, 1991), 9-intersection model proposed in Egenhofer and Herring (1991) and Egenhofer and Sharma (1993), and the Intersection and Difference (ID) model introduced by Deng et al. (2007). Where a spatial region is defined by its interior and boundary; and based on this definition, sets of intersections and differences are included according to the topological models (only sets of intersections for 4- and 9-intersection models; or with two difference and two intersection sets for the Intersection and Difference [ID] model).