Gis Data Types
Gis Data Types
Two
Raster Vector
location
is referenced by a grid cell in a rectangular array (matrix) attribute is represented as a single value for that cell much data comes in this form
images from remote sensing (LANDSAT, SPOT) scanned maps elevation data from USGS
best
land use
Reality
Raster
grid must cover the entire study area. Files can grow to enormous sizes for large study areas with small cell sizes. Attributes are limited and linking to tabular data is impractical. Adjacency is easy to determine, but topology is lacking. Raster grid cells are not aware and cannot have actions attached to them in the geodatabase.
location
referenced by x,y coordinates, which can be linked to form lines and polygons attributes referenced through unique ID number to tables much data comes in this form
DIME and TIGER files from US Census DLG from USGS for streams, roads, etc census data (tabular)
best
into 3 subparts
Point Line
1 2 3
Point 1 2 3 4
X
X X1 X2 X3 X4
Y Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4
Vector Encoding
Resulting Image
Line
1
X
X11 X12
...
Y
Y11 Y12
...
1 3 2 4
X
2 3
X3n
Y3n
X41 X4n
Y41 Y4n
Node
Vector Encoding
Resulting Image
Polygons must close upon themselves, so that the first and last vertex are the same. Polygons may include internal rings that act as donut holes areas excluded from the surrounding polygon. Polygons (and points and lines) may also include multiple parts.