TRIANGULATIONS FOR RUBBER-SHEETING

Abstract

This paper focuses on the application of triangulation and rubber-sheeting techniques to the problem of merging two digitized map files. The Census Bureau is currently developing a map merging procedure called conflation. Reproducibility, quality control, and a desire for mathematical consistency in conflation lead to a need for well-defined procedures. The Delaunay triangulation is well-defined and in some sense the 'best' triangulation on a finite set of points. It leads naturally into an efficient rubber^sheeting algorithm. The discussion starts with triangulations and rubber-sheeting in general and well-defined triangulations. This leads to the Delaunay triangulation, an algorithm for that triangulation and a specific rubber-sheeting technique. Finally, some problems that require further research are mentioned in an appendix.