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 an
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
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.

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.
 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 bu
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 trac
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.

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.

Figure 9 : Delaunay Triangulation

Advantages of Delaunay triangulation

 The triangles are as equiangular as possible, thus reducing potential numerical precision problems create
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 mode
The information related to TIN is stored in a file or a database table. Calculation of elevation, slope, and aspect
easy with TIN but these are less widely available than raster surface models and more time consuming in term o
construction and processing.

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