Cognitive Mapping for ITS Services

Spatial enabled Intelligent Transportation Systems and Services (ITS) are becoming the real framework for traffic management, providing support for response planning and analysis, and integrating facilities such as incident management, infrastructure maintenance, telematics and communication operation, floating car data, traveller information and data dissemination.
Within this exciting area, geographic databases and services makers face the challenge to meet higher content and quality requirements for their products and solutions, providing detail, functionality, performance and integration. However, the demand for such facilities, based on content, positional accuracy, detail, timeliness, etc., does not necessarily meet the most intelligible interface for operation or exploitation.
As an alternative to physical representations, mental or cognitive maps enables the ability to codes and simplifies the way our spatial environment is arranged, applying systematic distortions, highlighting how a person sees or should see the real world.
This paper is concerned with the implementation of cognitive maps used to manage the operational activity in Brisa Motorways, and how these applications are based in GIS services, providing in parallel conventional mapping.