National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

This report describes the results of NCGIA Initiative 3 on Multiple Representations, carried out in the period 1988-1990. Use of the term "Multiple Representations" refers to changes in geometric and topological structure of a digital object that may occur with the changing resolution at which that object is encoded for computer storage, analysis, and depiction. The implications of changing levels of resolution are important considerations in cartographic representations that figured prominently in the research reviewed in this report.