Methodology of the automatic generalization of buildings, road networks, forests and surface waters: a case study based on the Topographic Objects Database in Poland

This research presents the formalization and verification of the methodology for the automatic generalization of buildings, road networks, forests and surface waters from the Topographic Objects Database (BDOT10k) in Poland. The paper makes the following contributions. First, the generalization methodology contained in the official documents was acquired and presented in the form of the knowledge base. Second, the possibilities and limitations of the implementation of the knowledge base in ArcGIS were discussed. Third, the suitability of the BDOT10k structure for the purpose of automatic generalization performance was verified. As a result of the conducted generalization tests, it was found that the formalization and implementation of the methodology contained in the official specifications, in the automatic mode is not entirely possible. The generalization results, however, are promising. The presented research is in line with the studies recently conducted not only by Polish but also other European national mapping agencies.