A spatial contextual immune genetic algorithm to building cartographic displacement

In map generalization, displacement is the most frequently used operator to reduce the proximity conflicts caused by reducing scales or other generalization operations. Building displacement can be formalized as a combinatorial optimization problem, and a heuristic or intelligent search algorithm can be borrowed to obtain the solution. In this way, we can explicitly resolve minimum distance conflicts and control positional accuracy during the displacement. However, maintaining spatial relations and patterns of buildings can be challenging. To address spatial conflicts as well as preserve the significant spatial relations and patterns of buildings, we propose a new spatial contextual displacement algorithm based on an immune genetic algorithm. To preserve important spatial relations and global patterns of map objects and avoid topology errors, displacement safety zones are constructed by overlapping the Voronoi tessellation and buffer areas of the buildings. Additionally, a strategy to shift the buildings in a building group synchronously is used to maintain local building patterns. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm, two data sets with different building densities were tested. The results indicate that the new algorithm has obvious advantages in preventing topology errors and preserving spatial relations and patterns.