The selection and conceptualization of a phenomenon, or some aspect of it; a way of viewing a real world object, usually a simplification—such as a model. Data abstraction captures the essential information needed to describe a spatial phenomenon and is fundamental in geographic information science.
See Smaalen in M. J. Kraak and M. Molenaar, eds (1996) for a hierarchical rule for geographic information abstraction. McCormack (2012) PHG 36, 6, 715, argues that ‘abstraction can be affirmed as a necessary element of understandings of lived worlds in the making’.