Toward AI-Friendly Cartography: Understanding How Color Design Influences Foundation Model Spatial Reasoning on Sequential Choropleth Maps

Excerpt

arXiv:2608.15736v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Foundation models (FMs) increasingly support multimodal and geospatial reasoning, yet it remains unclear whether cartographic principles designed for human perception are equally effective for machines. Focusing on sequential choropleth maps, we examine how hue palette, color ordering, and lightness contrast influence FM spatial reasoning. We construct a controlled benchmark of 5,760 maps and 28,800 questions spanning Attribute Identify, Spatial Re