Assessment of sliver polygons in geographical vector data

As positional error is a major issue in the assessment of spatial data quality, its propagation has been studied widely in map overlaying. However, few studies deal with a manifest consequence of positional error in map overlaying, namely sliver polygons. Sliver polygons are generally treated as awkward by-products that need to be removed quickly. Nevertheless, as they represent spurious areas, their nature and properties carry useful information, for example, for land use/cover assessment. Therefore, next to sliver removal, there is a need for intelligent detection and eventually further analysis of sliver polygons. This article proposes a general, semi-automated method for the assessment of slivers in vector polygon layers. A case study in Flanders (Belgium) illustrates a possible application in area estimation evaluation of land use allocation classes.