Assessment of Geographic Space Arrangement Based on the Amount of Information Contained In the Map Image
Authors: Eckes Konrad 
Published: January 2015

In this paper an attempt was made to determine whether the amount of information, necessary to record a unit area of the geographic space, mapped on the large-scale map, may define the state of the arrangement of this space. The aim of this study was to make a comprehensive assessment of the geographical space in terms of its reasonable development. Intuition suggests that for two areas with similar functions - a picture of orderly and reasonably developed land and a disordered and chaotically developed land - one can record more concisely the image of the first than the latter. The work is an attempt to formulate an indicator that could characterize a state of the general arrangement of the geographical space and could serve as an objective assessment of such arrangement. The proposed statement was put to practical verification.

At the introduction the numerical amount of information was specified, necessary to record unit area of large-scale cadastral maps, containing only the boundaries of the ownership. In the task the concept of the amount of information proposed by C. E. Shannon was used. For a typical map at scale 1:1000, to record the area of one square decimetre (i. e. one hectare in the terrain) 531 bits of information are necessary. For the area of fragmented fields of southeast Poland this number increased to 4980 bits. Basing on previous work of the author, quoted for comparison, the amount of information, necessary to record the identical unit of a typical city in the same coding method, is 23360 bits of information. In this case extensive infrastructure of the city recorded on the source layers has to be included.

Later in the article, the amount of information necessary to record the same unit area of geographical space for the state of extreme disorder (chaos) and the state of the theoretical ideal arrangement was determined. The real determined values were much closer to the ideal in the ordered state than to the chaos. Subsequently, the amount of information was considered necessary for recording sites with different ways of building. Basing on this experience a clear relationship between the amount of information that is necessary to record unit area of geographical space and the degree of rationality of its development could not be established. Thus, the amount of information, required to record of the unit area of large-scale map image, cannot be unequivocal indicator of geographical arrangement and consequently also the image map, because the large-scale map accurately reflects the shape of the geographical space. The growth of the indicator can show the advanced infrastructure of the selected area - on the basis of comparable data.

The indicator of the amount of information can have other wide application - for planning of memory means required to store the geographic space and to determine the transmission time of the recorded data by telecommunication links. The search for a universal indicator of geographical space arrangement, characterizing its organization and rational development - must remain the subject of further research.