Geographic Information System

Chapter 3 – Spatial data types

TRƯƠNG QUỐC ĐỊNH
Geographic Phenomena
▪ We might define a geographic phenomenon
as something of interest that
▪can be named or described,
▪can be georeferenced, and
▪can be assigned a time (interval) at which it
is/was present
Field Vs. Object
▪ (Geographic) objects populate the study area,
and are usually well distinguishable, discrete,
bounded entities. The space between them is
potentially empty.
▪ A (geographic) field is a geographic
phenomenon for which, for every point in the
study area, a value can be determined.
▪ Object View: Trees, Houses, Streets.
▪ Field View: Elevation, Temperature, Rain
Intensity.
Field Vs. Object
Data Measurement
▪ The four measurements and their definitions are
▪ Nominal (định danh) Qualitative measurements: name,
type, state.
▪ Ordinal (thứ bậc) Quantitative measurements with a clear
order, but without a defined 0 value (small, medium,
large).
▪ Interval (định khoảng) Quantitative measurements with a
defined beginning point (temperature, height, distance).
▪ Ratio (tỷ lệ) Quantitative measurements that provide a
relationship between two properties where the 0 value
indicates the absence of the relationship (particulates
mg/m3, time to cover a distance, dissolved oxygen in a
liter of water).
Geographic fields
▪ We can think of a field f as a function from
any position in the study space to the domain
of values of the field. If (x, y) is a position in
the study area then f(x, y) stands for the value
of the field f at locality (x, y).
Geographic fields

▪ Continuous field: the underlying function is

assumed to be continuous.
▪Ex: temperature, barometric pressure or elevation
▪ Continuity means that all changes in field
values are gradual.
Geographic fields

▪ Discrete fields cut up the study space in

mutually exclusive, bounded parts, with all
locations in one part having the same field
value.
▪Typical examples are land classifications, for
instance, using either geological classes, soil type,
land use type, crop type or natural vegetation
type.
Geographic Objects

▪ When the geographic phenomenon is not

present everywhere in the study area, but
somehow ‘sparsely’ populates it, we look at it
in terms of geographic objects.
Geographic Objects

▪ Such objects are usually easily distinguished

and named. Their position in space is
determined by a combination of one or more
of the following parameters:
▪ location (where is it?),
▪ shape (what form is it?),
▪ size (how big is it?), and
▪ orientation (in which direction is it facing?).
Geographic Objects

▪ Roads are objects, they are characterized by:

▪ location (where does it begin and end)
▪ shape (how many lanes does it have)
▪ size (how far can one travel on it)
▪ orientation (in which direction can one travel on
it)
Computer representations of
geographic information
▪ In GIS, fields are usually implemented with
a tessellation (khảm) approach, and objects
with a (topological) vector approach.
▪ A tessellation of a flat surface is the tiling of
a plane using one or more geometric shapes,
called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps.
Regular tessellations
▪ A tessellation (or tiling) is a partition of space
into mutually exclusive cells that together make
up the complete study space.

▪
▪ The simplest example is a rectangular raster of
unit squares, represented in a computer in the
2D case as an array of n × m elements.
Regular tessellations

▪ The square cell tessellation is by far the

most commonly used, mainly because
georeferencing a cell is so straightforward.
▪ Square, regular tessellations are known
under various names in different GIS
packages: raster or raster map.
▪ The size of the area that a raster cell
represents is called the raster’s resolution.
Point representations

▪ Points are defined as single coordinate pairs

(x, y) when we work in 2D or coordinate
triplets (x, y, z) when we work in 3D.
▪ Points are used to represent objects that are
best described as shape- and sizeless, single-
locality features.
Line representations

▪ Line data are used to represent one-

dimensional objects such as roads, railroads,
canals, rivers and power lines.
▪ The two end nodes and zero or more
internal nodes define a line.
▪ Another word for internal node is vertex
(plural: vertices);
Line representations

▪ Another phrase for line that is used in some

GISs is polyline, arc or edge.
▪ A node or vertex is like a point (as discussed
above) but it only serves to define the line; it
has no special meaning to the application
other than that.
Vertex
Vertex Vertex

Start Point End Point

Area representations

▪ Employed when area objects are stored

using a vector approach.
Spatial Data Models
▪ Raster
▪ Exhaustive regular or irregular partitioning of space
▪ Associated with the field view
▪ Location-based
▪ Vector
▪ Points, lines, polygons
▪ Associated with the object view
▪ Object-based
Spatial Data Models
Spaghetti Vector Data Model
▪ Each point, line, or polygon is stored as a
record in a file that consists of that entity’s
ID and a list of coordinates that define
geometry. For Points:
ID Coordinates
1 3,4
2
2 5,5
1
For Lines:
ID Coordinates
1 (0,1), (3,4), (5,6)
2 (3,1), (5,2), (4,3)

2
For Polygons:
ID Coordinates
1 (2,4), (4,3), (3,6) , (2,4),
2 (3,1), (5,2), (4,3), (3,2), (3,1)

2
Spaghetti Vector Data Model
▪ Advantages
▪ Simple
▪ Efficient for display
▪ Disadvantages
▪ Inefficient for most types of spatial analysis
Vector Topological (có thể hiện
mối quan hệ địa lý) Data Model
▪ Composed of points, lines, and polygons
▪ Node: a point at the intersection of three or
more lines
▪ In addition to coordinate locations, the
topologic relationships among geometric
features are explicitly recorded.
 Vector Topologic Data Model
Arc Coordinate Data
A Arc StartXY IntermediateXY EndXY
n1
B a2 a1 a1 4,5 (4,8), (8,8), (8,1), (4,1) 4,3
a3
C a4 a2 4,5 (6,7), (6,3) 4,3
n2 a3 4,5 (1,3) 4,3
a4 4,3 4,5

Arc Topology Node Topology Polygon

Topology
Arc Start End Left Right Node Arcs
ID Arcs
a1 n1 n2 A n1 a4, a2, a1, a3
A a1, a2
a2 n1 n2 A B n2 a2, a4, a3, a1
B a2, a4
a3 n1 n2 C
C a3, a4
a4 n2 n1 C B
Vector Topologic Data Model
▪ Planar Enforcement
▪ No two individual features can overlap.
▪ There are no ‘holes’ or ‘islands’ that are not
themselves features.
▪ Every feature is represented as a record in the
attribute table.
Triangulated Irregular
Network (TIN)
Triangulated irregular network
▪ A triangulated irregular network (TIN) is a digital
data structure used in a GIS for the representation of a
surface.
▪ A TIN is a vector-based representation of the
physical land surface or sea bottom, made up of
irregularly distributed nodes and lines with three-
dimensional coordinates (x, y, and z) that are arranged
in a network of non-overlapping triangles.
▪An advantage of using a TIN in mapping and
analysis is that the points of a TIN are distributed
variably based on an algorithm that determines which
points are most necessary to an accurate
representation of the terrain.
Triangulated Irregular
Network (TIN)
Hybrid vs. Integrated
Approaches
▪ Hybrid Approach: stores spatial data and
attribute data in different data models
(typically relational data model for attribute
data and proprietary data structure for spatial
data).
▪ Integrated Approach: stores spatial and
attribute data using the same data model
(typically using the relational data model in a
single RDBMS).
Raster Data Model

▪ A raster
representation is
composed a series of
layers, each with a
theme.
▪ Typically used to
represent “field-like”
geographic
phenomena.
Regular Tessellations
Irregular Tessellations
Raster Grid
▪ But most common raster is composed of
squares, called grid cells.
▪ Grid cells are analogous to pixels in remote
sensing images and computer graphics.
Raster Resolution
▪ The distance that one side of a grid cell
represents on the ground
1 1 1 2 3 = grid cell resolution
1 1 1 2 3
2 2 2 2 2
The higher the resolution
4 4 4 2 3 (smaller the grid cell), the
4 4 4 2 3 higher the precision, but the
greater the cost in data
storage
Raster Data: Encoding
Raster Data: Encoding
Raster and RDBMS

ID Land Use
1 1 1 2 3 1 Agricultural
1 1 1 2 3 2 Road
2 2 2 2 2
3 Residential
4 4 4 2 3
4 Industrial
4 4 4 2 3
Global Positioning System -
GPS
▪ The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a
satellite based navigation system that can be
used to locate positions anywhere on earth. It
consists of satellites, control and monitor
stations, and receivers. GPS is used on incidents
in a variety of ways, such as:
▪ To determine position locations;
▪ To navigate from one location to another;
▪ To create digitized maps;
▪ To determine distance between two points or how far
you are from another location.
Space Segment — Satellites
orbiting the earth
▪ The space segment consists of 29 satellites circling
the earth every 12 hours at 12,000 miles in altitude.
▪ The satellites are arranged in their orbits so a GPS
receiver on earth can receive a signal from at least
four satellites at any given time.
▪ The satellites transmit low radio signals with a
unique code on different frequencies, allowing the
GPS receiver to identify the signals. The main
purpose of these coded signals is to allow the GPS
receiver to calculate travel time of the radio signal
from the satellite to the receiver.
Control Segment — The control
and monitoring stations
▪ The control segment tracks the satellites and
then provides them with corrected orbital and
time information.
▪The control segment consists of five unmanned
monitor stations and one Master Control Station.
The five unmanned stations monitor GPS
satellite signals and then send that information
to the Master Control Station where anomalies
are corrected and sent back to the GPS satellites
through ground antennas.
User Segment — The GPS
receivers owned by civilians and
military
▪ The user segment consists of the users and their
GPS receivers. The number of simultaneous
users is limitless.
How GPS Determines a
Position
▪ The GPS receiver uses the following
information to determine a position.
▪ Precise location of satellites
▪ Distance from each satellite
▪ Triangulation to determine position
Precise location of satellites
▪ When a GPS receiver is first turned on, it
downloads orbit information from all the
satellites called an almanac.
▪This process, the first time, can take as long
as 12 minutes; but once this information is
downloaded, it is stored in the receiver’s
memory for future use.
Distance from each satellite
▪ The GPS receiver calculates the distance
from each satellite to the receiver by using
the distance formula: distance = velocity x
time.
▪Velocity = 186,000 miles per second
Triangulation to determine
position
▪ The receiver determines position by using
triangulation. When it receives signals from at least
three satellites the receiver should be able to
calculate its approximate position (a 2D position).
▪ The receiver needs at least four or more satellites
to calculate a more accurate 3D position.
▪ The position can be reported in latitude/longitude,
UTM, or other coordinate system.
GPS errors sources
▪ Multipath interference is caused by the satellite signal
reflecting off of vehicles, buildings, power lines, water
and other interfering objects.
▪ Multipath is difficult to detect and sometimes impossible
for the user to avoid or for the receiver to correct.
▪ When using a GPS receiver in a vehicle place the
external antenna on the roof of the vehicle to eliminate
most signal interference caused by the vehicle. If the GPS
receiver is placed on the dashboard there will always be
some multipath interference.