Introduction: Uncertainty Issues in Spatial Information Robert Jeansoulin, Odile Papini, Henri Prade, and Steven Schockaert Abstract. This introductory chapter serves two purposes. First, it provides a brief overview of research trends in different areas of information processing for the han- dling of uncertain spatial information. The discussion focuses on the diversity of spatial information, and the different challenges that may arise. Second, an overview of the contents of this edited volume is presented. We also point out the novelty of the book, which goes beyond geographical information systems and considers dif- ferent forms of quantitative and qualitative uncertainty. 1 The Nature of Spatial Information Variety of Spatial Information The term spatial information refers to pieces of information that are associated with locations, which typically refer to points or regions in some two- or three- dimensional space. Many applications deal with geographic information [8, 35], in which case the space under consideration is the surface of the Earth. Other Robert Jeansoulin CNRS UMR 8049 LabInfo IGM, Universit´ e Paris-Est Marne-la-Vall´ ee 77454 Marne-la-Vall´ ee Cedex 2, France e-mail: robert.jeansoulin@univ-mlv.fr Odile Papini CNRS UMR 6168 LSIS, 163, Avenue de Luminy, ESIL, Universit´ e de la M´ editerran´ ee 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France e-mail: odile.papini@esil.univmed.fr Henri Prade CNRS UMR 5505 IRIT, Universit´ e Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France e-mail: prade@irit.fr Steven Schockaert Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Krijgslaan 281, Universiteit Gent 9000 Gent, Belgium e-mail: steven.schockaert@ugent.be R. Jeansoulin et al. (Eds.): Methods for Handling Imperfect Spatial Info., STUDFUZZ 256, pp. 1–11. springerlink.com c  Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010