Skip to main content

Twenty Years of Topological Logic

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography ((LNGC))

Abstract

Topological logics are formal systems for representing and manipulating information about the topological relationships between objects in space. Over the past two decades, these logics have been the subject of intensive research in Artificial Intelligence, under the general rubric of Qualitative Spatial Reasoning. This chapter sets out the mathematical foundations of topological logics, and surveys some of their many surprising properties.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bennett B (1997) Determining consistency of topological relations. Constraints 3:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke BL (1981) A calculus of individuals based on ‘connection’. Notre Dame J Formal Logic 23:204–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke BL (1985) Individuals and points. Notre Dame J Formal Logic 26:061–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Vries H (1962) Compact spaces and compactifications, an algebraic approach. Van Gorcum & Co. N.V., Assen, Netherlands

    Google Scholar 

  • Dimov G, Vakarelov D (2006) Contact algebras and region-based theory of space: a proximity approach. Fund. Informaticae 740(2–3):0 209–249

    Google Scholar 

  • Dornheim C (1998) Undecidability of plane polygonal mereotopology. In: Proceedings of KR’98, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, pp 342–353

    Google Scholar 

  • Düntsch I, Winter M (2005) A representation theorem for Boolean contact algebras. Theor Comput Sci 347:498–512

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egenhofer M, Franzosa R (1991) Point-set topological spatial relations. Int J Geogr Info Syst 5:161–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths A (2008) Computational properties of spatial logics in the real plane. PhD thesis, School of Computer Science, U. Manchester

    Google Scholar 

  • Grzegorczyk A (1951) Undecidability of some topological theories. Fundamenta Mathematicae 38:137–152

    Google Scholar 

  • Kontchakov R, Pratt-Hartmann I, Wolter F, Zakharyaschev M (2010a) The complexity of spatial logics with connectedness predicates. Logical Methods Comp Sci 60 (3:7)

    Google Scholar 

  • Kontchakov R, Pratt-Hartmann I, Zakharyaschev M (2010b) Interpreting topological logics over Euclidean spaces. In Proceedings of KR, AAAI Press, California, pp 534–544

    Google Scholar 

  • Kontchakov R, Nenov Y, Pratt-Hartmann I, Zakharyaschev M (2011) On the decidability of connectedness constraints in 2D and 3D Euclidean spaces. In Proceedings IJCAI, AAAI Press, California, pp 957–962

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuijpers B, Paredaens J, van den Bussche J (1995) Lossless representation of topological spatial data. In Advances in spatial databases, vol 951, LNCS, Springer, Berlin, pp 1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinsey JCC, Tarski A (1944) The algebra of topology. Ann Math 45:141–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nutt W (1999) On the translation of qualitative spatial reasoning problems into modal logics. In Proceedings of KI, vol 1701, LNCS, Springer, Berlin, pp 113–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Papadimitriou CH, Suciu D, Vianu V (1999) Topological queries in spatial databases. J Comp Syst Sci 580(1):29–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt I, Lemon O (1997) Ontologies for plane, polygonal mereotopology. Notre Dame J Formal Logic 380(2):225–245

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt I, Schoop D (2002) Elementary polyhedral mereotopology. J Phil Logic 31:461–498

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt I, Schoop D (2000) Expressivity in polygonal, plane mereotopology. J Symb Logic 650(2):822–838

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt-Hartmann I (2007) First-order mereotopology. In: Aiello M, Pratt-Hartmann I, van Benthem J (eds) Handbook of spatial logics. Springer, Berlin, pp 13–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Randell D, Cui Z, Cohn A (1992) A spatial logic based on regions and connection. In: Proceedings of KR, Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, pp 165–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Renz J (1998) A canonical model of the region connection calculus. In: Cohn A (ed) Proceedings of KR, Morgan Kaufmann, pp 330–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Renz J (1999) Maximal tractable fragments of the region connection calculus: a complete analysis. In: Proceedings of IJCAI, Morgan Kaufmann, pp 448–454

    Google Scholar 

  • Renz J, Nebel B (1999) On the complexity of qualitative spatial reasoning. Artif Intell 108:69–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renz J, Nebel B (2001) Efficient methods for qualitative spatial reasoning. J Artif Intell Res 15:289–318

    Google Scholar 

  • Renz J, Nebel B (2007) Qualitative spatial reasoning using constraint calculi. In: Aiello M et al Handbook of spatial logics, Springer, pp 161–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Roeper P (1997) Region-based topology. J Phil Logic 26:251–309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer M, Sedgwick E, Štefankovič D (2003) Recognizing string graphs in NP. J Comp Syst Sci 67:365–380

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoop D (1999) A model-theoretic approach to mereotopology. PhD thesis, School of Computer Science, U. Manchester, 1999

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarski A (1956) Foundations of the geometry of solids. In: Logic, semantics, metamathematics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp 24–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead AN (1929) Process and reality. MacMillan, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolter F, Zakharyaschev M (2000) Spatial reasoning in RCC-8 with boolean region terms. In: Proceedings of ECAI, IOS, pp 244–248

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the Interdisciplinary Transregional Collaborative Research Center Spatial Cognition: Reasoning, Action, Interaction, University of Bremen, for their kind hospitality and generous support during the writing of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ian Pratt-Hartmann .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Pratt-Hartmann, I. (2013). Twenty Years of Topological Logic. In: Raubal, M., Mark, D., Frank, A. (eds) Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34359-9_12

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics