Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-158).

As our society becomes more and more complex, planners, politicians and other decision-makers are increasing their demands for relevant, accurate and timely statistical information on a "tailor-made" spatial basis. Government agencies responsible for the provision of statistical data in map form have found that conventional approaches to thematic mapping are not able to cope with these demands and are therefore turning to automated and semi-automated production systems. This thesis deals with the design objectives for an interactive spatial information display subsystem for Census data and reports upon efforts to integrate existing packages into this framework. Consideration is also given to the factors influencing the choice between building a special-purpose subsystem or adopting existing packages with similar or complementary objectives. Finally, a few typical results are appended to demonstrate the current level of operational capacity. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate