Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are an essential part of economies at the national, regional, and local levels. Understanding the determinants of the development of this sector is interesting not only for researchers but also for local governments to support the development of this sector. This paper analyses micro, small, and medium enterprises at the gmina (local) level in one region, the Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodship (NUTS2) in Poland. The authors use multivariate linear regression, spatial econometrics, and classification trees to model the influence of different factors on the number of enterprises relative to population size. The authors found that the most crucial factor in all cases, independently of the method used, is the local government’s revenue from personal income tax per capita. This finding, together with the lack of significance of variables related to the distance to technological parks or economic zones, indicates that the enterprises in the region produce mainly for local consumption and lack innovativeness. The authors also examined the influence of spatial context on the number of enterprises. The most important factor seems to be the percentage of built-up areas, but there are also others, depending on the model type; again, this confirms the local character of the activity of micro, small, and medium enterprises in the region. Variables representing the spatial context can explain the relative number of enterprises with coefficient of determination (R²) between 0.30 and 0.45, which shows that this context played a relatively significant role in the development of the MSME sector in the region. On the other hand, the econometric models (that include the neighborhood) are only significant (improving R2) for medium enterprises, which means that medium enterprises expand their activity beyond the local range.

Generalization of geographic information enables cognition and understanding not only of objects and phenomena located in space but also the relations and processes between them. The automation of this process requires formalization of cartographic knowledge, including information on the spatial context of objects. However, the question remains which information is crucial to the decisions regarding the generalization (in this paper: selection) of objects. The article presents and compares the usability of three methods based on rough set theories (rough set theory, dominance-based rough set theory, fuzzy rough set theory) that facilitate the designation of the attributes relevant to a decision. The methods are using different types (levels of measurements) of attributes. The author determines reducts and their cores (common elements) that show the relevance of attributes stemming from the spatial context. The fuzzy rough set theory method proved the least useful, whereas the rough set theory and dominance-based rough set theory methods seem to be recommendable (depending on the governing level of measurement).

Selection is a key element of the cartographic generalisation process, often being its first stage. On the other hand it is a component of other generalisation operators, such as simplification. One of the approaches used in generalization is the condition-action approach. The author uses a condition-action approach based on three types of rough logics (Rough Set Theory (RST), Dominance-Based Rough Set Theory (DRST) and Fuzzy-Rough Set Theory (FRST)), checking the possibility of their use in the process of selecting topographic objects (buildings, roads, rivers) and comparing the obtained results. The complexity of the decision system (the number of rules and their conditions) and its effectiveness are assessed, both in terms of quantity and quality – through visual assessment. The conducted research indicates the advantage of the DRST and RST approaches (with the CN2 algorithm) due to the quality of the obtained selection, the greater simplicity of the decision system, and better refined IT tools enabling the use of these systems. At this stage, the FRST approach, which is characterised by the highest complexity of created rules and the worst selection results, is not recommended. Particular approaches have limitations resulting from the need to select appropriate measurement scales for the attributes used in them. Special attention should be paid to the selection of network objects, in which the use of only a condition-action approach, without maintaining consistency of the network, may not produce the desired results. Unlike approaches based on classical logic, rough approaches allow the use of incomplete or contradictory information. The proposed tools can (in their current form) find an auxiliary use in the selection of topographic objects, and potentially also in other generalisation operators.

The wide access to source data, published by numerous websites, results in situation, when information acquisition is not a problem any more. The real problem is how to transform information in the useful knowledge. Cartographic method of research, dealing with spatial data, has been serving this purpose for many years. Nowadays, it allows conducting analyses at the high complexity level, thanks to the intense development in IT technologies, The vast majority of analytic methods utilizing the so-called data mining and data enrichment techniques, however, concerns non-spatial data. According to the Authors, utilizing those techniques in spatial data analysis (including analysis based on statistical data with spatial reference), would allow the evolution of the Spatial Information Infrastructure (SII) into the Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure (SKI). The SKI development would benefit from the existence of statistical geoportal. Its proposed functionality, consisting of data analysis as well as visualization, is outlined in the article. The examples of geostatistical analyses (ANOVA and the regression model considering the spatial neighborhood), possible to implement in such portal and allowing to produce the “cartographic added value”, are also presented here.