MapEval: A Map-Based Evaluation of Geo-Spatial Reasoning in Foundation Models

Mahir Labib Dihan, MD Tanvir Hassan, MD TANVIR PARVEZ, Md Hasebul Hasan, Md Almash Alam, Muhammad Aamir Cheema, Mohammed Eunus Ali, Md Rizwan Parvez

Keywords: MapLLM, Map Query, Geo-Spatial Question Answering, Geo-Spatial Reasoning, Location Based Service, Google Maps

Abstract:

Recent advancements in foundation models have enhanced AI systems' capabilities in autonomous tool usage and reasoning.
However, their ability in location or map-based reasoning - which improves daily life by optimizing navigation, facilitating resource discovery, and streamlining logistics - has not been systematically studied. To bridge this gap, we introduce MapEval, a benchmark designed to assess diverse and complex map-based user queries with geo-spatial reasoning. MapEval features three task types (textual, API-based, and visual) that require collecting world information via map tools, processing heterogeneous geo-spatial contexts (e.g., named entities, travel distances, user reviews or ratings, images), and compositional reasoning, which all state-of-the-art foundation models find challenging. Comprising 700 unique multiple-choice questions about locations across 180 cities and 54 countries, MapEval evaluates foundation models' ability to handle spatial relationships, map infographics, travel planning, and navigation challenges. Using MapEval, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of 28 prominent foundation models. While no single model excelled across all tasks, Claude-3.5-Sonnet, GPT-4o, and Gemini-1.5-Pro achieved competitive performance overall. However, substantial performance gaps emerged, particularly in MapEval, where agents with Claude-3.5-Sonnet outperformed GPT-4o and Gemini-1.5-Pro by 16% and 21%, respectively, and the gaps became even more amplified when compared to open-source LLMs. Our detailed analyses provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of current models, though all models still fall short of human performance by more than 20% on average, struggling with complex map images and rigorous geo-spatial reasoning. This gap highlights MapEval's critical role in advancing general-purpose foundation models with stronger geo-spatial understanding.

Primary Area: datasets and benchmarks

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Submission Number: 3179