An Axiomatic Approach to Geographical Space

Abstract

Geographical space is a major concept in spatial analysis. Curiously enough, no attempt has so far been made to provide a general and rigorous presentation. In this paper, a formal definition of the basic geographical components is given. For that purpose, topology and measure theory are used. A general definition of geographical space is then proposed and some properties are examined. Finally, the relations between the proposed definition and the particular representations used in spatial analysis are discussed .