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Conflation of Geospatial Data

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Encyclopedia of GIS

Synonyms

Geospatial data alignment; Geospatial data reconciliation; Computer cartography; Imagery conflation

Definition

Geospatial data conflation is the compilation or reconciliation of two different geospatial datasets covering overlapping regions [1]. In general, the goal of conflation is to combine the best quality elements of both datasets to create a composite dataset that is better than either of them. The consolidated dataset can then provide additional information that cannot be gathered from any single dataset.

Based on the types of geospatial datasets dealt with, the conflation technologies can be categorized into the following three groups:

  • Vector to vector data conflation: A typical example is the conflation of two road networks of different accuracy levels. Figure 1shows a concrete example to produce a superior dataset by integrating two road vector datasets: road network from US Census TIGER/Line files, and road network from the department of transportation, St. Louis,...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.digitalcorp.com/conflex.htm

  2. 2.

    http://www.esea.com/products/

  3. 3.

    http://maps.google.com/

  4. 4.

    http://terraservice.net/

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geosemble Technologies, El Segundo, CA, USA

    Ching-Chien Chen

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA, USA

    Craig A. Knoblock

Authors
  1. Ching-Chien Chen
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  2. Craig A. Knoblock
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Shashi Shekhar (McKnight Distinguished University Professor) (McKnight Distinguished University Professor)

  2. Management Science and Information Systems Department, Rutgers Business School Newark and New Brunswick Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Hui Xiong (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Chen, CC., Knoblock, C. (2008). Conflation of Geospatial Data. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_182

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