Knowledge and Reasoning in Spatial Analysis

Reasoning is an essential part of any analysis process. Especially in visual analytics, the quality of the results depends heavily on the knowledge and reasoning skills of the analyst. In this study, we consider how to make the results transparent by visualizing the reasoning and the knowledge, so that persons from outside can trace and verify them. The focus of this study is in spatial analysis and a case study was carried out on a process of off‐road mobility analysis. In the case study, linked views of a map and a PCP were identified as reasoning artifacts. The knowledge used by the analyst was formed by these artifacts and the tangible pieces of information identified in them, along with the mental models of the analyst′s mind. To make the results transparent, the tangible pieces of information were marked with sketches and the mental models were presented in causal graphs because it was found that causality was central to the reasoning process in the case study. The causal graph allows the reasoning of the analyst to be studied, as well as traced back to its origin.