Geographic Information Systems

Concept of topology
Dr. Arun K. Saraf,
Professor
Department of Earth Sciences

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• Topology

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/topologies/topology-basics.htm
• Topology describes the spatial relationships between
adjacent features
• Using such data structures enforces planar relationships,
and allows GIS specialists to discover relationships
between data layers.
• It can also be defined as “Topology is a collection of rules
that, coupled with a set of editing tools and techniques,
enables the geodatabase to more accurately model
geometric relationships.”

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 What Is Topology?
• In 1736, the mathematician Leonhard Euler published a paper that
arguably started the branch of mathematics known as topology
• Today, topology in GIS is generally defined as the spatial
relationships between adjacent or neighboring features
or
• The details of the connections between spatial objects such as the
information about which areas bound a line segment is called
topology
or
• Topology stores the relationships of one spatial object with
respect to another
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 What Is Topology?
• Mathematical topology assumes that geographic features occur on a
two-dimensional plane.
• Through planar enforcement, spatial features can be represented
through nodes (0-dimensional cells); edges, sometimes called arcs
(one-dimensional cells); or polygons (two-dimensional cells).
• Because features can exist only on a plane, lines that cross are broken
into separate lines that terminate at nodes representing intersections
rather than simple vertices.
• In GIS, topology is implemented through data structure.

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Topological data structures are advantageous:
• Provide an automated way to handle digitizing and editing
errors and artifacts
• Reduce data storage for polygons because boundaries
between adjacent polygons are stored only once
• Enable advanced spatial analyses such as adjacency,
connectivity and containment (control)
• Another important consequence of planar enforcement is
that a map that has topology contains space-filling,
nonoverlapping polygons

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6
 Why topology?
• Topology has long been a key GIS requirement for data

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/topologies/topology-basics.htm
management and integrity.
• Topology is fundamentally used to ensure data quality of the
spatial relationships and to aid in data compilation.
• Topology is also used for analyzing spatial relationships in
many situations, such as dissolving the boundaries between
adjacent polygons with the same attribute values or
traversing a network of the elements in a topology graph.

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 Why topology?
• Topology enables advanced spatial analysis and plays a

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/topologies/topology-basics.htm
fundamental role in ensuring the quality of a GIS database.
• Topology can also be used to model how the geometry from a
number of feature classes can be integrated also referred as
vertical integration of feature classes.

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 Ways that features share geometry in a
topology

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/topologies/topology-basics.htm
• Features can share geometry within a topology.
• For example: among adjacent features:
• Area features can share boundaries (polygon topology).
• Line features can share endpoints (edge-node topology).

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 Ways that features share geometry in a
topology

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/topologies/topology-basics.htm
• In addition, shared geometry can be managed between feature
classes using a geodatabase topology, e.g.:
 Line features can share segments with other line features.
 Area features can be coincident with other area features. For
example, parcels can nest within blocks.
 Line features can share endpoint vertices with other point
features (node topology).
 Point features can be coincident with line features (point
events).
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 Topological Data Model

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/topologies/topology-basics.htm
In general, a topological data
model manages spatial
relationships by representing
spatial objects (point, line, and
area features) as an underlying
graph of topological
primitives—nodes, faces, and
edges.

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 Topological Data Model

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/manage-data/topologies/topology-basics.htm
• These primitives, together with their relationships to one
another and to the features whose boundaries they
represent, are defined by representing the feature
geometries in a planar graph of topological elements.

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 Topological Data Model
Path Topological Model
• Spaghetti Model
• Polygon Model
Graph Topological Model
• Dime (Dual Indendent Map Encoding)
• POLYVERT (Polygon Converter)
TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network)

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Spaghetti Model

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Topological Model

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THANKS

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