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4. Spatial DBMS

Introduction
Computers and Information Technology have driven the human society towards a comfortable life where
thousands of activities are performed on a click of a button and help save a lot of time. Everyday activities
such as withdrawing money from a bank, making airline reservations, accessing a book from a library etc., are
the processes that involve computer programs that access databases and database systems to facilitate all
these services to the users.

The database systems have been growing and are involved in diverse applications such as:

A multimedia database to store pictures, video clips, and sound messages.

A real time database technology to control industrial and manufacturing processes.
A GIS database used for storing the geographical information.
Other common applications of databases include bank transactions, sales, reservations, registration etc.

Let us start understanding the world of databases with its functional unit known as data.
Data is defined as a collection of observations that could be in forms of facts, values, measurement, images
etc. The data when used with a context becomes the information. It can be further processed, organized or
simply summarized.

Given below is a list of numbers. This list of numbers is data since it communicates no meaning as such.

25

23

24

27

As soon as it is qualified that the numbers refer to the temperature recorded in degree Celsius in different
cities of India on a particular day, the numbers become the temperature information.

Date Cities Temperature (ºC)

Delhi 25

23 October 2011
Mumbai 23

Kolkata 24

Chennai 27

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4. Spatial DBMS

Data Storage
There are two approaches of storing data:

1. File based
2. Database

File based approach

File-based system is a collection of application programs that perform services for the users with each program
defining and managing its data.

A flat file is an ordinary file where records of the file do not contain any information to communicate the file
structure or relationship among the records to the application which is using the file.

Types of File Structure

Unordered files
Ordered files
Index files

Unordered files

Also known as heap files, the unordered sequential files have the basic type of organization where records are
placed in the file in the order in which they are inserted i.e. new records are inserted at the end of the file.

Ordered files

The records in such a file can be ordered based on the values of one of their fields known as ordering fields. If
the ordering field is the field whose value are distinct for each individual entity of the file, then the field is
known as ordering key. Reading the records in order of ordering key values becomes efficient as no sorting is
required.

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Index Files

Indexes are additional access structures which are used to speed up the retrieval of the records in response to
a search condition. These provide alternative ways of accessing the records without affecting the physical
placement of records.

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4. Spatial DBMS

Data Structure Models

Data models are the conceptual models that describe the structures of databases. Structure of a database is
defined by the data types, the constraints and the relationships for the description or storage of data. Following
are the most often used data models:

Hierarchical Data Structure Model

It is the earliest database model that is evolved from file system where records are arranged in a hierarchy or as
a tree structure. Records are connected through pointers that store the address of the related record. Each
pointer establishes a parent child relationship where a parent can have more than one child but a child can only
have one parent. There is no connection between the elements at the same level. To locate a particular record,
you have to start at the top of the tree with a parent record and trace down the tree to the child.

Figure 3 : Example showing hierarchical data structure

(Source of image: http://mikehillyer.com/articles/managing-hierarchical-data-in-mysql/ )

The figure above describes the electronic gadgets in day today use. We can see that flash is a child of mp 3
players, which is a child of portable electronics, which is a child of electronics. The topmost element electronics
has no parent.
Tube, LCD, plasma, CD players and 2 way radios are leaf nodes (don’t have any children).

Advantages

Easy to understand: The organization of database parallels a family tree understanding which is quite
easy.
Accessing records or updating records are very fast since the relationships have been predefined.

Disadvantages

Large index files are to be maintained and certain attribute values are repeated many times which lead to
data redundancy and increased storage.
The rigid structure of this model doesn’t allow alteration of tables, therefore to add a new relationship
entire database is to be redefined.

Network Data Structure Model

A network is a generalized graph that captures relationships between objects using connectivity. A network
database consists of a collection of records that are connected to each other through links. A link is an

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association between two records. It allows each record to have many parents and many children thus allowing a
natural model of relationships between entities.

Advantages

The many to many relationships are easily implemented in a network data model.
Data access and flexibility in network model is better than that in hierarchical model. An application can
access an owner record and the member records within a set .
It enforces data integrity as a user must first define owner record and then the member records.
The model eliminated redundancy but at the expense of more complicated relationships.

Disadvantages

The network model has a complex structure that requires familiarity from user’s as well as programmer’s
end.

Relational Data Structure Model

The relational data model was introduced by Codd in 1970. The relational database relates or connects data in
different files through the use of a common field. A flat file structure is used with a relational database model. In
this arrangement, data is stored in different tables made up of rows and columns. The columns of a table are
named by attributes. Each row in the table is called a tuple and represents a basic fact. No two rows of the same
table may have identical values in all columns.
There are two crucial data integrity constraints viz. primary key and foreign key. A primary key is an attribute
whose value is unique across all tuples (rows) in a relation (table). The primary key of one table appearing as an
attribute of another table is known as a foreign key in that table.

Advantages

The manager or administrator does not have to be aware of any data structure or data pointer. One can
easily add, update, delete or create records using simple logic.

Disadvantages

A few search commands in a relational database require more time to process compared with other
database models.

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Working with Tables

Most databases instead of keeping their data together in a single table, organize the data into multiple tables
each focusing on a specific topic. A user can link these tables if required information isn’t present in a single
table. The records in one table can be associated with records in the other table through a common field. The
temporary associations can be made by joining and relating the tables.

Join

Joining appends the fields of one table to fields of another through an attribute/field common to both the tables.

Relate

Relate defines a relationship between two tables. Relates are bidirectional which means both tables involved will
be able to use the relate regardless of which table owns the relate. The associated data isn’t appended in the
table like it is in join. However one can access the related data by selecting a particular record and then going to
the related tables against that record.

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4. Spatial DBMS

Database and Database Management System

A database is a collection of logically related data. It represents an aspect of a real world and is designed, built
or populated with data for a specific purpose. Many databases exist for many applications, and each one of
them is maintained by a collection of programs known as a database management system.

A database management system (DBMS) is a computer program that stores and manages large amounts of
data. One can define, construct, edit and share the database among various users and applications.

A database is defined by the data types, structures, and data constraints that are stored in the database.
Constructing the database means storing the data in the database. Manipulating involves querying the database
to retrieve specific data, updating the database, and generation of reports. Sharing is allowing multiple users
and programs to access the database concurrently. Database contents are divided into two parts viz. schema
and data. Schema is the structure of database. It indicates the rule which data must obey. Data on the other
hand are the facts.

Imagine that we want to store the information about the students of a particular class. This information in a
database would be stored together in a single container called table. The table has rows (with different
students) and columns (that contain facts on the students such as studentname, age etc.) The table is named
STUDENT_INFO (see below).

STUDENT_INFO

STUDENTNAME STUDENTID AGE SEX

ALICE CE01 18 F

ANDREW CE02 17 M

DAVID CE03 18 M

DONA CE04 18 F

The schema would define that STUDENT_INFO has four facts/attributes viz. ‘ STUDENTNAME’, ‘STUDENTID’,
‘AGE’, ‘SEX’. To ensure that correct data is filled in all the columns of the table one can also enforce rules and
constraints for data input.

Advantages of DBMS

Controlling Redundancy

Redundancy means storing the same data multiple times. DBMS checks redundancy and prevents duplication of
efforts, saves storage space and preserves the data files from becoming inconsistent.

Restricting Unauthorized Access

A DBMS provides a security and authorization system, which the database administrator uses to create
accounts and to specify account restriction.

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Providing Storage Structures for Efficient Query Processing

Database systems provide capabilities for efficient execution of queries and updates. Because the database is
typically stored on disk, it provides specialized data structures to speed up disk search for the desired records.
Auxiliary files called indexesare used for this purpose.

Providing Backup and Recovery

The backup and recovery subsystem of the DBMS helps in recovering from hardware or software failures.

Enforcing Integrity Constraints

Most database applications have certain integrity constraints that must be held for the data. A DBMS should
provide capabilities for defining and enforcing these constraints.

Along with the advantages, the DBMS usage involves overhead costs that are not incurred in conventional file
processing. These overhead costs are due to:

High initial investment in hardware, software and training

Overhead for providing security, concurrency control, recovery and integrity functions

One may use regular files instead of a DBMS under the following circumstances:

The database and applications are simple, well defined and are not expected to change.
Multiple user access to data isn’t required

Database Architecture

We can consider the database on three levels of abstraction:

1. External Level refers to user’s view of the database. It describes a part of the database for particular
group of users. Depending on their needs, different users access different parts of the database. It
employs a powerful and flexible security mechanism by hiding parts of the database from certain users.

2. Conceptual Level refers to the logical structure of the entire database. It describes data as well as the
relationships among the data.

3. Internal Level refers to the details of physical storage of the database on the computer. It consists of
description of storage space allocation for data and indexes, record placements and data compression.

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Figure 1 : Three tier architecture of a database

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4. Spatial DBMS

Entity Relationship Model

The entity relationship (ER) model represents the conceptual design of a database. The ER diagram helps in
understanding the components of a database and relationships among them.

Entity Record

An entity is a real world item that exists on its own. The set of all possible values for an entity is the entity
type. For example, a particular student such as ‘Ravi Kumar’ is an entity record. Student is the entity type in
this case.
In ER diagram we show entity type as a rectangle containing the type name.

Attribute
Properties that describe an entity are known as its attributes. The value of an attribute could be expressed in
numbers or in text. The set of all possible values of an attribute is known as attribute domain. In ER diagram
attributes are represented by ovals attached to the entity by a line.
Attributes can be classified as:

Key attributes: An attribute whose values are distinct for each individual entity record and are used for
identifying an individual entity record are known as key attributes. For example in the student entity type,
StudentID is the key attribute since no two students can have same StudentID.

A key attribute is underlined in ER diagram.

Non-key attributes : Attributes that are not unique but are used to describe the entities are known as non-
key attributes. Names, age, address of a student are the non key attributes.

Simple : Attributes that can’t be divided into subparts are called simple attributes. For example StudentID
which is just a number is a simple attribute.

Composite : Attributes that can be divided into subparts with each subpart having their own independent
meaning are composite attributes. For example Name of a student can be divided into two parts i.e. first name
and last name. This could be illustrated by branching off the components of the attribute.

Single valued: Attributes that can hold only single value at a time are called single valued attributes. Age of a
student can’t have more than one value and hence it is a single valued attribute.

Multiple valued: Attributes that can have more than one value are called multiple valued attributes. For
example the contact number of a student can have two or more than two phone numbers.
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A multi valued attribute is shown as:

Derived attributes: The attributes that are derived using a mathematical formula and operations on other
attributes are called derived attributes.

Stored attributes: The attributes from which another attributes can be derived are called stored
attributes.The age of a student can be calculated by counting the number of years starting from his date of
birth to the present date. In this case age is the derived attribute and date of birth is the stored attribute. In ER
diagram a derived attribute is represented with a dotted oval and a line.

Relationship
A relationship is an association among entity types. It is represented as a diamond in ER diagram.
For example an entity ‘student’ can be associated with another entity ‘class’ as follows:

‘Attends’ is the relationship between the two entities.

The degree of a relationship type is the number of participating entity types. The above example has degree 2
and is therefore a binary relationship.

Cardinality

Cardinality denotes the occurrences of data on either side of a relation. The cardinality ratio for a binary
relationship specifies the maximum number of relationship instances an entity can participate in.

A one to one relationship indicates that a single instance of one entity is associated with a single instance in
the related entity.

A student performs a particular experiment.

A one to many or a many to one relationship indicates that a single instance of one entity is associated with
one or more instances of the related entity.

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A student associated with many projects indicates a one to many relationship, and many students associated
with a single project indicate a many to one relationship.

A many to many relationship indicates that either entity participating in the relationship may have many
instances.

Every student is attending one or more classes. Every class has one or more students.

Example: The diagram shown below represents the academic functioning of a college. There are five entities
viz. Department, Faculty, Student, Course, and Hostel. All the five entities have their own attributes. DNumber,
FacultyID, StudentID, CourseID, and HostelID are the key attributes of Department, Faculty, Student, Course
and Hostel respectively. The entities are related to each other and the respective relationships are explained
below:
A college has many departments. A department would have students as well as faculty. The one to many
relationship between department and students, and, department and faculty states that a department belongs
to many students and it employs many faculty members. Looking at these relationships in a reverse direction
conveys that a student as well as a faculty belongs to a single department and thus establishes one to one
relationship.
A student can register himself into various courses; similarly a course can be studied by many students. A
student lives in a single hostel but a hostel accommodates many students. A department offers many courses
but a particular course belongs to a particular department. A faculty teaches many courses but a particular
course is taught by a single faculty only.

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Figure 2 : ER-Diagram showing academic functioning of a college

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4. Spatial DBMS

Normalization
Normalization is a design technique which helps designing relational databases. The objective of normalization
is to create a set of relational tables that are free of redundant data and to make data consistent.
First normal form

Eliminate repeating groups in individual tables.

Create a separate table for each set of related data.
Identify each set of related data with a primary key.

Second normal form

Create separate tables for sets of values that apply to multiple records .
Relate these tables with a foreign key

Third normal form

Eliminate fields that do not depend on the key

An example from Microsoft Support ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100139 ) explains the process of

normalization which is described as following:

Unnormalized table

The example shows a table (Table1) in which the group ‘class’ is mentioned three times. Since one student has
several classes, these classes should be listed in a separate table. Another table in first normal form (Table2) is
created by eliminating the repeating group (Class#), as shown below:

First Normalization (No Repeating Groups)

Note the Class# values for each Student# value in the above table. Class# is not functionally dependent on
Student# (primary key), so this relationship is not in second normal form. Class# is separated from the first
normalization table and is placed in another table (Table4).

Second Normalization (Eliminate Redundant Data)

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The attribute Adv-Room is functionally dependent on the Advisor attribute. It must be moved from the student
table to some other table let’s say faculty table (Table6).

Third Normalization (Eliminate data not dependent on key)

Object Oriented Database

According to Worboys (1995) spatial data can’t be managed properly by relational data model approach. Spatial
data don’t naturally fit into tabular structures. More attention has been given to the development of object
oriented approach of database design. The aim of object oriented model is to allow data modeling which is
closer to real world. An object-oriented database uses objects as elements within database files. An object is a
logical grouping of related data that represents a real world entity. Each object is a distinct entity which is
identified using a key attribute called ObjectID. The object can be grouped together to form a class. Objects of
the same class have same attributes, behavior and relationships with other objects.
The attributes of the object are known as its states. In addition to the states of an object information about its
behavior is stored. These are the operations that are performed on the object.
For example ‘hotel’ is an object with states such as name, address, number of rooms. The operations that can
be performed on this object can vary as plotting on map, adding to a database, increasing or decreasing
number of rooms etc. The object hotel belongs to a class called ‘buildings’. Any object in the class hotel will
inherit the properties of the class building. Thus the states and operations applicable to ‘building’ will also apply
to ‘hotel’.

Longley et al. (2001) list the following features of object data models which make them good for modeling GIS
systems:

Encapsulation: packaging together of the description of state and behavior in each object
Inheritance: ability to use some or all characteristics of one object in another object
Polymorphism: specific implementation of operations such as create, delete etc for each object.

References

http://wofford-ecs.org/dataandvisualization/ermodel/material.htm viewed on 8 November 2011 Oppel, A 2010,

Databases demystified, 2 nd edn, McGraw Hill, United States

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100139 viewed on 14 November 2011 Elmasri, R & Navathe, S 2000,

Fundamentals of database systems, 3 rd edn, Pearson Education, Singapore
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Goodchild, M.F., Longley, P.A., Maguire, D. J. & Rhind, D.W 2001, Geographic information systems and science,
John Wiley & Sons Ltd. , England.

http://cnx.org/content/m28159/latest/ viewed on 16 November 2011

http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/units/u064/

http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/units/u045/u045_f.html

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5. Data Model And Data Strutures

Introduction
Since DBMS used to store one-dimensional data, like integer or real numbers and strings, considerable interest
has been developed in using DBMS to store spatial data as well. It has been observed that that ordinary DBMS
do not handle spatial data such as boxes, polygons, or even points in a multidimensional space efficiently.

Spatial and non-spatial data

Spatial data refers to the data or information that describes the absolute or relative location of geographic
features on the earth. The non spatial data or the attribute data on the other hand describes the
characteristics of the spatial features. These characteristics can be quantitative or qualitative.

Representation of Space

Burrough & McDonnell (1998) described two ways to represent the space (an area, landscape or some bigger
unit), which are as follows:
a. Discrete Entities: The space could be seen as occupied with entities that are described by their properties
and can be located on earth using coordinate systems. The entities have a clear boundary.
Buildings, roads, land parcels etc. are the example of discrete entities.
b. Continuous fields: The variation of an attribute over the space as a continuous field. No physical boundary
can ever be observed in such case.
Temperature, pressure, elevation etc. across an area are the examples of continuous fields

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5. Data Model And Data Strutures

GIS Data Models

Data models are conceptual models of the real world. These describe us the representation and storage of the
geographic data. The data models used in GIS are described below:

a. Vector Data Model

The vector data model is closely linked with the discrete object view. In vector data model, geographical
phenomena are represented in three different forms;-point, line and polygon. The shape of a spatial entity is
stored using two-dimensional (x, y) coordinate system.

Point : A location depicted by a single set of (x, y) coordinates at the scale of abstraction.

The wells in a village, electricity poles in a town and cities in the world map are the examples of spatial features
described by points.

Note: A city can be marked as a single point on a world map but would be marked as a polygon on a state map.
The scale plays an important role in deciding the geometry of a geographical feature.

Line/Arc : Ordered sets of (x, y) coordinate pairs arranged to form a linear feature. The curves in a linear
feature are generated by increasing the density of points/vertices.
The roads, rails and telephone cables are the examples of the spatial features described by lines.

Polygon : The set of (x, y) coordinate pairs enclosing a homogeneous area.

The land parcels, agricultural farms and water bodies are the examples of the spatial features described by
polygons.

b. Raster Data Model

The raster data model is commonly associated with the field conceptual model. Here, geographic space is
represented by array of cells or pixels (aka picture elements) which are arranged in rows and columns. Each
pixel has a value that represents information. The value can be in the form of integer, floating points or
alphanumeric.

A point can be represented by a single pixel in raster model. A line is a chain of spatially connected cells with
the same value. Similarly, a water body in raster data is represented as a set of contiguous pixels having same
value that represents a homogeneous area.

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5. Data Model And Data Strutures

Vector data structure

Geographic entities encoded using the vector data model, are often called features. The features can be divided
into two classes:

a. Simple features
These are easy to create, store and are rendered on screen very quickly. They lack connectivity relationships
and so are inefficient for modeling phenomena conceptualized as fields.

b. Topological features
A topology is a mathematical procedure that describes how features are spatially related and ensures data
quality of the spatial relationships. Topological relationships include following three basic elements:

I. Connectivity: Information about linkages among spatial objects

II. Contiguity: Information about neighboring spatial object

III. Containment: Information about inclusion of one spatial object within another spatial object

Connectivity

Arc node topology defines connectivity - arcs are connected to each other if they share a common node. This
is the basis for many network tracing and path finding operations.

Arcs represent linear features and the borders of area features. Every arc has a from-node which is the first
vertex in the arc and a to-node which is the last vertex. These two nodes define the direction of the arc. Nodes
indicate the endpoints and intersections of arcs. They do not exist independently and therefore cannot be added
or deleted except by adding and deleting arcs.

Figure 3: Arc-node Topology

Nodes can, however, be used to represent point features which connect segments of a linear feature (e.g.,
intersections connecting street segments, valves connecting pipe segments).

Figure 4: Node showing intersection

Arc-node topology is supported through an arc-node list. For each arc in the list there is a from node and a to
node. Connected arcs are determined by common node numbers.

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Figure 5: Arc-Node Topology with list

Contiguity

Polygon topology defines contiguity. The polygons are said to be contiguous if they share a common arc.
Contiguity allows the vector data model to determine adjacency.

Figure 6:Polygon Topology

The from node and to node of an arc indicate its direction, and it helps determining the polygons on its left and
right side. Left-right topology refers to the polygons on the left and right sides of an arc. In the illustration
above, polygon B is on the left and polygon C is on the right of the arc 4.

Polygon A is outside the boundary of the area covered by polygons B, C and D. It is called the external or
universe polygon, and represents the world outside the study area. The universe polygon ensures that each arc
always has a left and right side defined.

Containment

Geographic features cover distinguishable area on the surface of the earth. An area is represented by one or
more boundaries defining a polygon. The polygons can be simple or they can be complex with a hole or island
in the middle. In the illustration given below assume a lake with an island in the middle. The lake actually has
two boundaries, one which defines its outer edge and the other (island) which defines its inner edge. An island
defines the inner boundary of a polygon. The polygon D is made up of arc 5, 6 and 7. The 0 before the 7
indicates that the arc 7 creates an island in the polygon.

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Figure 7: Polygon arc topolgy

Polygons are represented as an ordered list of arcs and not in terms of X, Y coordinates. This is called
Polygon-Arc topology. Since arcs define the boundary of polygon, arc coordinates are stored only once,
thereby reducing the amount of data and ensuring no overlap of boundaries of the adjacent polygons.

Simple Features

Point entities : These represent all geographical entities that are positioned by a single XY coordinate pair.
Along with the XY coordinates the point must store other information such as what does the point represent
etc.

Line entities : Linear features made by tracing two or more XY coordinate pair.

Simple line: It requires a start and an end point.

Arc: A set of XY coordinate pairs describing a continuous complex line. The shorter the line segment and
the higher the number of coordinate pairs, the closer the chain approximates a complex curve.

Simple Polygons : Enclosed structures formed by joining set of XY coordinate pairs. The structure is simple
but it carries few disadvantages which are mentioned below:

Lines between adjacent polygons must be digitized and stored twice, improper digitization give rise to
slivers and gaps
Convey no information about neighbor
Creating islands is not possible

Topologic Features

Networks : A network is a topologic feature model which is defined as a line graph composed of links
representing linear channels of flow and nodes representing their connections. The topologic relationship
between the features is maintained in a connectivity table. By consulting connectivity table, it is possible to
trace the information flowing in the network

Polygons with explicit topological structures : Introducing explicit topological relationships takes care of
islands as well as neighbors. The topological structures are built either by creating topological links during data
input or using software. Dual Independent Map Encoding (DIME) system of US Bureau of the Census is one of
the first attempts to create topology in geographic data.

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Figure 8: Polygon as a topological feature

Polygons are formed using the lines and their nodes.

Once formed, polygons are individually identified by a unique identification number.
The topological information among the polygons is computed and stored using the adjacency information
(the nodes of a line, and identifiers of the polygons to the left and right of the line) stored with the lines.

Fully topological polygon network structure

A fully topological polygon network structure is built using boundary chains that are digitized in any direction. It
takes care of islands and lakes and allows automatic checks for improper polygons. Neighborhood searches are
fully supported. These structures are edited by moving the coordinates of individual points and nodes, by
changing polygon attributes and by cutting out or adding sections of lines or whole polygons. Changing
coordinates require no modification to the topology but cutting out or adding lines and polygons requires
recalculation of topology and rebuilding the database.

Triangular Irregular Network (TIN)

TIN represents surface as contiguous non-overlapping triangles created by performing Delaunay triangulation.
These triangles have a unique property that the circumcircle that passes through the vertices of a triangle
contains no other point inside it. TIN is created from a set of mass points with x, y and z coordinate values. This
topologic data structure manages information about the nodes that form each triangle and the neighbors of
each triangle.

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Figure 9 : Delaunay Triangulation

Advantages of Delaunay triangulation

The triangles are as equiangular as possible, thus reducing potential numerical precision problems created
by long skinny triangles
The triangulation is independent of the order the points are processed
Ensures that any point on the surface is as close as possible to a node

Because points can be placed irregularly over a surface a TIN can have higher resolution in areas where surface
is highly variable. The model incorporates original sample points providing a check on the accuracy of the
model. The information related to TIN is stored in a file or a database table. Calculation of elevation, slope, and
aspect is easy with TIN but these are less widely available than raster surface models and more time consuming
in term of construction and processing.

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The TIN model is a vector data model which is stored using the relational attribute tables. A TIN dataset
contains three basic attribute tables: Arc attribute table that contains length, from node and to node of all the
edges of all the triangles.

Node attribute table that contains x, y coordinates and z (elevation) of the vertices
Polygon attribute table that contains the areas of the triangles, the identification number of the edges and
the identifier of the adjacent polygons.

Storing data in this manner eliminated redundancy as all the vertices and edges are stored only once even if
they are used for more than one triangle. As TIN stores topological relationships, the datasets can be applied to
vector based geoprocessing such as automatic contouring, 3D landscape visualization, volumetric design,
surface characterization etc.

Did You Know?

MasterMap

The UK Ordnance Survey MasterMap is a framework for the referencing of geographic information in Great
Britain. It comprises four layers that provide detailed topographic, address, aerial imagery and road network
features positioned on the National Grid.

The MasterMap has following main features:

Data layers provide a seamless topographic database for the UK at the scales of 1:1250 and 1:2500
Real world features are represented by points, lines and polygons each with their own unique reference
called TOID
The data can be supplied in a topologically structured format.

There are over 430 million features in the MasterMap database and around 5000 updates are made every
day. The data have been used successfully in a range of projects.

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5. Data Model And Data Strutures

Raster Data Structure

In a simple raster data structure the geographical entities are stored in a matrix of rectangular cells. A code is
given to each cell which informs users which entity is present in which cell. The simplest way of encoding a raster
data into computers can be understood as follows:

(a) Entity model: It represents the whole raster data. Let us assume that the raster data
belongs to an area where land is surrounded by water. Here a particular entity (land) is shown
in green color and the area where land is not present is shown by white.

(b) Pixel values: The pixel value for the full image is shown. Cells having a part of the land are
encoded as 1 and others where land is not present are encoded as 0.

(c) File structure: It demonstrates the method of coding raster data. The first row of the file
structure data tells that there are 5 rows and 5 columns in the image, and 1 is the maximum
pixel value. The subsequent rows have cells with value as either 0 or 1 (similar to pixel
values).

The huge size of the data is a major problem with raster data. An image consisting of twenty different land-use
classes takes the same storage space as a similar raster map showing the location of a single forest. To address
this problem many data compaction methods have been developed which are discussed below:

Run length encoding

Reduction of data on a row by row basis

Stores a single value for a group of cells rather than storing values for individual cells

First line represents the dimension of the matrix (5×5) and the number of entities (1) present. In second
and subsequent lines, the first number in the pair represents absence (0) or presence (1) of the entity and
the second number indicates the number of cells referenced.

Block encoding

Data is stored in blocks in the raster matrix.

The entity is subdivided into hierarchical blocks and the blocks are located using coordinates.

The first cell at top left hand is used as the origin for locating the blocks

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Chain encoding

Works by defining boundary of the entity i.e. sequence of cells starting from and returning to the given
origin
Direction of travel is specified using numbers. (0 = North, 1 = East, 2 = South, 3 = West)
The first line tells that the coding started at cell (4, 2) and there is only one chain. In the second line the
first number in the pair tells the direction and the second number represents the number of cells lying in
this direction.

Quadtree

A raster is divided into a hierarchy of quadrants that are subdivided based on similar value pixels.
The division of the raster stops when a quadrant is made entirely from cells of the same value.
A quadrant that cannot be subdivided is called a leaf node.

A satellite or remote sensing image is a raster data where each cell has some value and together these values
create a layer. A raster may have a single layer or multiple layers. In a multi-layer/ multi-band raster each layer
is congruent with all other layers, have identical numbers of rows and columns, and have same locations in the
plane. Digital elevation model (DEM) is an example of a single-band raster dataset each cell of which contains
only one value representing surface elevation.

A single layer raster data can be represented using

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a. Two colors (binary): The raster is represented as binary image with cell values as either 0 or 1 appearing black
and white respectively

Grayscale: Typical remote sensing images are recorded in an 8 bit digital system. A grayscale image is thus
represented in 256 shades of gray which range from 0 (black) to 255 (white). However a human eye can’t make
distinction between the 255 different shades. It can only interpret 8 to 16 shades of gray.

A satellite image can have multiple bands, i.e. the scene/details are captured at different wavelengths
(Ultraviolet- visible- infrared portions) of the electromagnetic spectrum. While creating a map we can choose to
display a single band of data or form a color composite using multiple bands. A combination of any three of the
available bands can be used to create RGB composites. These composites present a greater amount of
information as compared to that provided by a single band raster.

Comparison between Vector and Raster Data Models

Data Model Advantages Disadvantages

Simple data structure Cell size determines the resolution at

which the data is represented

Compatible with remote Requires a lot of storage space

sensing or scanned data
Raster

Spatial analysis is easier Projection transformations are time

consuming

Simulation is easy because Network linkages are difficult to establish

each unit has the same size

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and shape

Data is represented at its The location of each vertex is to be stored

original resolution and form explicitly
without generalization

Require less storage space Overlay based on criteria is difficult

Vector

Editing is faster and Spatial analysis is cumbersome

convenient

Network analysis is fast Simulation is difficult because each unit

has a different topological form

Projection transformations
are easier

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5. Data Model And Data Strutures

Geodatabase

The term ‘Geodatabase’ was introduced by Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) and is
defined as a collection of geographic datasets of various types that are held in a common file system folder
such as MS Access database, Oracle, SQL server, DB2 etc. The geodatabase is built on extended relational
database. In this model, entities are represented as objects with properties, behavior, and relationships.

Geodatabase supports various elements of GIS such as attribute data, CAD data, geographic features, satellite
and aerial images, GPS data and survey measurements. These types of data can be represented as data
objects viz. annotation, dimension, feature class, geometric network, raster dataset, tables, topology,
relationship class etc. Geodatabase design is based on a fundamental step of GIS design which involves
organizing geographic information into a series of data themes then specifying the content and representation
of the thematic layers. Advance capabilities (network, topology, subtypes etc.) are added later to the
geodatabase to model GIS behavior and maintain data integrity. Other key properties of geodatabase design
include definition of coordinate properties and spatial properties, tolerances, coordinate resolution and
metadata documentation for each dataset.

Read more on Geodatabase

Metadata

Metadata is structured information that describes and makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an
information resource. It is also known as data about data.

Need of metadata

To enable the process of search over distributed archives: Similar to a library catalog, it sorts data and
makes it easy for a user to find it.
Helps assessing the fitness of a dataset for a given use: Metadata is needed to determine whether a
dataset will satisfy a user’s requirement. Does the data have acceptable quality? It may also have
comments from previous users.
Provides information about data content: In the case of remotely sensed images, it may include the
percentage of cloud obscuring the scene and some other information.
Provide information about handling the dataset: It includes technical specification of the data format,
software compatible with the data, data volume etc.

Geospatial metadata commonly keep records of Geographic Information System (GIS) files, geospatial
databases, and earth imagery. It can also be used to document data catalogs, mapping applications, data
models and related websites. Metadata has the information on library catalog elements such as title, abstract,
and publication; geographic elements such as geographic extent and projection information; and database
elements such as attributes and their values.

The most widely used standard for metadata is the US Federal Geographic Data Committee’s Content
Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM). CSDGM describes the items that should be present in a
metadata archive but doesn’t prescribe the format to present it. Developers implement the standards that suit
their own ways but make sure that the implementations are interoperable i.e. can be understood by other.

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Figure 10: Screenshot of metadata of a shapefile displayed in ArcCatalog

Temporal Dimension in GIS

Spatial features may change over time in terms of space and the content. The changes could be geometrical
(change in geometry of features), positional (change in position of features), or a change in attributes of the
features. When changes in locations of a group of objects are observed together, the changes in the spatial
distribution pattern of the objects can be deciphered.

One may analyze the temporal data sets to monitor the changes that are happening over the time. Though
with time, a lot of things undergo changes but monitoring the changes must be done prudently as it involves
huge investment of resources. The monitoring intervals must be fixed in a manner that captures the change in
the spatial phenomena and at the same time it must remain efficient and viable.

The effect of urbanization on the land use of an area can be monitored by a change detection analysis that
makes use of temporal satellite images and GIS to determine the nature, extent and rate of land cover change
and fragmentation over time and space. Temporal GIS studies are quite popular in the field of forest
conservation and management. One of the studies described the monitoring of deforestation in a land resource
inventory project in Nepal where within an interval of 30 years (1950-1980) 50% of the forest land was lost to
shrub and agriculture. Similar, temporal studies are carried out for various sectors of natural resources
management such as biodiversity, water; land/soil etc. where considering the future needs, making a balance
between consumption and availability of the natural resources is of utmost importance.

References

http://www.ian-ko.com/resources/triangulated_irregular_network.htm viewed on 19 November 2011

Burrough, P. A & McDonnell, R. A. 1998, Principles of geographical information systems, Oxford University
Press, UK.

Goodchild, M.F., Longley, P.A., Maguire, D. J. & Rhind, D.W 2001, Geographic information systems and science,
John Wiley & Sons Ltd. , England.

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Lo, C.P. & Yeung, A. 2009, Concepts and techniques of Geographic Information Systems, PHI Learning Private
Limited, New Delhi.

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