Map algebra

[1] The technique was largely developed by landscape architects and city planners, starting with Warren Manning and further refined and popularized by Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, Ian McHarg and others during the 1950s and 1960s.

While a graduate student at Yale University, Tomlin and Joseph K. Berry re-conceptualized these tools as a mathematical model, which by 1983 they were calling "map algebra.

Although the basic operations were defined in his 1983 PhD dissertation, Tomlin had refined the principles of map algebra and cartographic modeling into their current form by 1990.

This widespread implementation further led to the development of many extensions to map algebra, following efforts to extend the raster data model, such as adding new functionality for analyzing spatiotemporal and three-dimensional grids.

[8] However, in most modern implementations, map algebra operations are typically one component of a general procedural processing system, such as a visual modeling tool or a scripting language.