Intelligent Maps and Information Landscapes. Two New Approaches to Support Search and Retrieval of Environmental Information Objects

Abstract

In this paper, we present how two different knowledge retrieval techniques can be applied to improve search and retrieval for environmental information objects. Both approaches have in common that they provide users with as much guidance as possible. Our first approach capitalises on geographical metadata and intelligent maps as retrieval tool. The idea is to start a query with an intelligent map and to systematically narrow the scope of interest by choosing different query parameters. With our second approach we generate information landscapes, i.e. two-dimensional maps to display the results of search queries. In information landscapes documents with similar content are placed closer together, and islands appear where there is a concentration of closely related documents. The paper closes with a comparison of the two approaches and suggestion about when to use which approach.