Quantitative Measures for Spatial Information of Contour Maps

Quantitative measure for map information is a key issue in spatial information sciences.Effective quantitative measure methods are not only important for understanding characters of spatial information,but also important for effectively use of these information.Among different kinds of maps,topographic map is broadly used in many fields.The landform is usually characterized by topograhic contour lines on this map.Existing quantitative measures for map information are evaluated.A set of quantitative measures for geometric and topological information of topographic contours is proposed.Some tests are given.