Georelational Vector

Data Model
Representation of simple features
⚫ Vector Data uses Points and their (X,Y) coordinates to
represent spatial features
⚫ Vector data model uses geometric objects like points, lines, and
areas to represent simple spatial features
⚫ Dimensionality and property distinguishes the 3 types of
geometric objects as well as the features they represent.
⚫ POINT
⚫ A point has O dimensions and has only the property of
location. A point may also be called a node, vertex or 0-cell.
⚫ A point feature is made up of a point or a set of separate points.
Example: wells in a particular area, cities in India.
⚫ LINE
⚫ A line is one-dimensional and has the property of length.
⚫ Line is also called edge, chain, link, 1-cell, polyline, or arc.
⚫ 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 or vertices define
a line.
⚫ A node or vertex is like a point but it only serves to define the line,
and provide shape in order to obtain a better approximation of the
actual feature.
⚫ The straight parts of a line between two consecutive vertices or end
nodes are called line segments.
⚫ Many GISs store a line as a simple sequence of coordinates of its end
nodes and vertices, assuming that all its segments are straight.
⚫ A line has 2 endpoints and points in between to make the shape of
the line. The shape of a line may be a smooth, curve or a connection
of straight line segments.
⚫ AREA or Polygon
⚫ An area is two-dimensional and has the property of area
(size) and perimeter. The area is also called polygon, face,
zone or 2-cell.
⚫ Area is made up of connected lines.
⚫ Areas as they are represented by their boundaries. Each
boundary is a cyclic sequence of line features;
⚫ An area may be alone or share boundaries with other
areas.
⚫ A polygon can represent a city, lack, river, stadium etc.
Representation of Vector Data Model
Vector Data Model can be represented in two data models

1. Geo relational data model

2. Object-based vector data model
Georelational Data Model
⚫ Georelational data model stores spatial and attribute data
separately in a split system ie.
⚫ Two different databases.
⚫ Geo( Spatial data)
⚫ Relational(attribute data)
⚫ It stores spatial and attribute data separately in a split
system: spatial data in graphic files and attribute data in a
relational database.
⚫ It uses the feature ID to link the two components.
Topology
⚫ Topology expresses explicitly the spatial relationships
between features.
⚫ It involves encoding relationships between the points,
lines and areas.
⚫ It is often expressed through graph theory
(digraph-directed graph)
⚫ The directed lines are called arcs and the points where the
arcs meet or intersect are called nodes.
⚫ It is a set of rules on how objects relate to each other
• Topology refers to the spatial relationships between
geographical elements in a data set that do not change
under a continuous transformation.
• Area E is still inside area D, The neighborhood
relationships between A, B, C, D, and E stay intact, and
their boundaries have the same start and end nodes
• The areas are still bounded by the same boundaries, only
the shapes and lengths of their perimeters have
⚫ Adjacency and incidence are two relationship that can be
established between nodes and arcs.
Importance of Topology
1. It enables to detect errors such as lines that do not meet
correctly or unclosed polygon (provide data quality).
2. Network Modeling
3. It enhances GIS analysis – such as address geocoding,
traffic flow etc.
TIGER (Topological Integrated Geographic
Encoding and Referencing) Model
⚫ Tiger is an application of topology in preparing database
from the U.S.Census Bureau which contains legal and
statistical area boundaries such as countries, roads,
railway, water bodies etc.
⚫ The database also include the address range on each side
of a street segment.
⚫ In Tiger points are called 0 cells, lines as 1 cell and area as
2 cells
ESRI’s Coverage Model
⚫ ESRI introduced coverage model in the 1980’s to separate
GIS from CAD.
⚫ Coverage is a topology based vector data format.
⚫ It supports three basic topological relationship
1. Connectivity
2. Area definition
3. Contiguity – arcs have directions.
Coverage data structure
1. Point coverage – it contains feature identification numbers
(ID) and pairs of x and y coordinates.
2. Line coverage – the starting point of an arc is the
from-node and end point is to-node.
⚫ Arc-node list sorts out the arc-node relationship
⚫ Arc-coordinate list shows the x, y coordinates of from-node,
to-node and vertices.
3. Polygon coverage –
⚫ Polygon-arc list shows the relationship between arcs and
polygon.
⚫ Left-right list shows the relationship between arcs and their
left and right polygon
⚫ Arc-coordinate list shows the nodes and the vertices
Non Topological vector data
⚫ Shapefile is a standard non topological data format used in
ESRI products.
⚫ Shapefile treats a point as a pair of x,y coordinate, a line
as a series of points and a polygon as a series of lines, no
files describe the spatial relationship between the
geometric objects.
⚫ Shapefiles can be converted to coverage and vice versa.
⚫ Advantage -
1. Shapefile can display data more rapidly on the computer
monitor than topology based data.
2. They are nonproprietary and interoperable.
Data Models for Composite Features
⚫ It refers to those special features that are better represented
as composites of points, lines and polygons.
⚫ ESRI coverage model includes such composite features as
TINs, regions, and routes
TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network)
⚫ It is a data structure used in 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.
⚫ The TIN data structure includes the
⚫ Triangle number, number of each adjacent triangles
⚫ The list of points and edges, as well as the x, y and z value
of each elevation point.
Regions
⚫ A region can be defined as geographic area with similar
characteristics.
⚫ A region may have spatially joint or disjoint areas, and can
overlap or cover the same area.
⚫ The region data structure includes the
⚫ Region-polygon list – relates the region to the polygon
⚫ Region-arc list – link the region to the arc and the ring.
Routes
⚫ A route is a linear feature such as a highway, but unlike
other linear feature, a route has a measurement system that
allows linear measures to be used on a projected
coordinate system.