Hierarchical representations of indoor spaces

Compared with typical outdoor spaces, indoor spaces are clustered and have a fragmented social structure and diverse groups use the space in different ways, which results in different conceptualizations. Accordingly, these spaces pose many challenges for spatial information systems, amongst them appropriate spatial communication with users as different conceptualizations result in different communication needs. The conceptualizations are hierarchical in nature and, thus, information systems also require hierarchical representations of indoor spaces. In this paper we present a hierarchization process that acounts for different use roles. The hierarchization exploits structural, functional, and organizational dimensions and allows for communicating different aspects of the space in a way tailored to the specific user groups.