Extending geographical representation to include fields of spatial objects

This paper describes a means for linking field and object representations of geographical space The approach is based on a series of mappings where locations in a continuous field are mapped to discrete objects An object in this context is a modelers conceptualization as in a viewshed highway corridor or biological reserve An object can be represented as a point line polygon network, or other complex spatial type The relationship between locations in a field and spatial objects may take the form of one to one one to many many to one or many to many We present a typology of object fields and discuss issues in their construction storage and analysis Example applications are presented and directions for further research are offered.