Context-aware abstraction and generalization of street networks: two cognitively engineered user-oriented approaches using network Voronoi diagrams

Generalization and spatial contextual awareness are prevalent concepts in geographic information systems. This study adopted a context-dependent user-centred network generalization method to create a sub-network for optimal route finding. The results show an increase in the number of preferred traversed edges. A route presentation approach is suggested that is based on cognitively engineered user-oriented abstraction of street network. Successive abstractions hierarchize the street network to create a hierarchical presentation structure. The route is projected onto one level in the structure. Then, instead of showing the exact route, the network Voronoi regions represented by the projected route are shown. Experience indicates that the suggested method is an efficient way of route presentation for a hierarchical regionalized structure of a human cognitive map.