A fuzzy based method for classifying semantically equivalent spatial data sets in spatial database queries

Geographic information systems are becoming more important in decision and analysis processes. It is useful to retrieve all GIS data sets that are related to a given geographic theme. At present there are no known methods for implicitly linking data sets so that all related sets are returned for a given spatial query. A new method is being developed that employs fuzzy logic and a geometric glyph that can be applied to the automatic linking and retrieval of spatially related data sets in a query.