
84 7. Processing Digital Maps
can make use of many other geospatial data sources to be compared with
the traces: satellite pictures, blueprints of buildings, parks, etc.
This example indicates the restrictions of the graphical front end. For
one thing, the map area is not very large compared to an entire country.
Second, the word “graphical” implies human scanning and handcrafting by
carefully validating every trace against information previously stored. This
step relies completely on the human eye and can hardly ever be automated.
Maps are always hand made—which makes them expensive. On the other
hand, geospatial data is readily available, and there ...