T.Y.BSc.

IT
Sem-6 Principles of Geographic Information Systems

Unit II:
Data Management and Processing Systems
Hardware and Software Trends
Geographic Information Systems: GIS Software, GIS Architecture and
functionality, Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)
Stages of Spatial Data handling: Spatial data handling and preparation,
Spatial Data Storage and maintenance, Spatial Query and Analysis, Spatial
Data Presentation.
Database management Systems: Reasons for using a DBMS, Alternatives
for data management, The relational data model, Querying the relational
database.
GIS and Spatial Databases: Linking GIS and DBMS, Spatial database
functionality.

Chapter 3: Data management and processing systems

Q. Write a note about GIS software.

GIS can be a data store (i.e. a system that stores spatial data), a toolbox, a
technology, an information source or a field of science. The main
characteristics of a GIS software package are its analytical functions that
provide means for deriving new geoinformation from existing spatial and
attribute data.

The use of tools for problem solving is one thing, but the production of
these tools is something quite different. Not all tools are equally well-
suited for a particular application, and they can be improved and perfected
to better serve a particular need or application. The discipline of
geographic information science is driven by the use of our GIS tools.

Some GISs have traditionally focused more on sup-port for raster-based

functionality, others more on (vector-based) spatial objects. We can safely
state that any package that provides support for only rasters or only
objects, is not a complete GIS. Well-known, full-fledged GIS packages
include ILWIS, Intergraph’s GeoMedia, ESRI’s ArcGIS, and MapInfo from
Map-Info Corp.

There is no GIS package which is necessarily ‘better’ than another one: this
depends on factors such as the intended application, and the expertise of
its user. ILWIS’s traditional strengths are in raster processing and scientific
spatial data analysis, especially in project-based GIS applications.
Intergraph, ESRI and MapInfo products have been known better for their
support of vector-based spatial data and their operations, user interface
and map production (a bit more typical of institutional GIS applications).

Q. Define GIS architecture and functionality.

a GIS consists of several functional components—components which

support key GIS functions. These are data capture and preparation, data
storage, data analysis, and presentation of spatial data. Figure shows a
diagram of these components, with arrows indicating the data flow in the
system. For a particular GIS, each of these components may provide many
or only a few functions.

Fig Functional components of a GIS

Q. Define Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI)

Many organizations are forced to work in a cooperative setting in which

geographic information is obtained from, and provided to, partner
organizations and the general public. The sharing of spatial data between
the various GISs in those organizations is of key Data sharing importance
and aspects of data dissemination, security, copyright and pricing require
special attention. The design and maintenance of a Spatial Data
Infrastructure (SDI) deals with these issues.

An SDI is defined as “the relevant base collection of technologies, policies

and institutional arrangements that facilitate the availability of and access
to spatial data”. Fundamental to those arrangements are in a wider sense
the agreements between organizations and in the narrow sense, the
agreements between software systems on how to share the geographic
information.

Standards exist for all facets of GIS, ranging from data capture to data
presentation. They are developed by different organizations, of which the
most prominent are the Inter-national Organization for Standardization
(ISO) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

Q. What are the different stages of spatial data handling?

The functions for capturing data are closely related to the disciplines of
surveying engineering, photogrammetry, remote sensing, and the
processes of digitizing, i.e. the conversion of analogue data into digital
representations.

1. Spatial data capture and preparation

Traditional techniques for obtaining spatial data, typically from paper

sources, included manual digitizing and scanning.
Table3.2liststhemainmethodsandde-vices used for data capture. In recent
years there has been a significant increase in the availability and sharing of
digital (geospatial) data.
 Method Devices
Manual digitizing coordinate entry via keyboard
digitizing tablet with cursor
mouse cursor on the computer
monitor (heads-up digitizing)
(digital) photogrammetry
Automatic digitizing Scanner
Semi-automatic digitizing line-following software
Input of available digital data CD-ROM or DVD-ROM
via computer network or internet
(including geo-webservices)

The data, once obtained in some digital format, may not be quite ready for
usei n the system. This may be because the format obtained from the
capturing process is not quite the format required for storage and further
use, which means that some type of data conversion is required.

2. Spatial data storage and maintenance

The way that data is stored plays a central role in the processing and the
eventual understanding of that data. In most of the available systems,
spatial data is organized in layers by theme and/or scale.

In a GIS ,features are represented with their (geometric and non-

geometric) attributes and relationships. The geometry of features is
represented with primitives of the respective dimension: a windmill
probably as a point, an agricultural field as a polygon.

Vector data types describe an object through its boundary, thus dividing
the space into parts that are occupied by the respective objects. The raster
approach subdivides space into (regular) cells, mostly as a square
tessellation of dimension two or three. These cells are called either cells or
pixels in 2D, and voxels in 3D. The data indicates for every cell which real
world feature it covers, in case it represents a discrete field. In case of a
continuous field, the cell holds a representative value for that field.

Advantages and disadvantages

Raster representation Vector representation

Advantages
simple data structure efficient representation of topology
simple implementation of adapts well to scale changes
overlays allows representing networks
efficient for image processing allows easy association
with attribute data
Disadvantages
less compact data structure complex data structure
difficulties in representing overlay more difficult to implement
topology inefficient for image processing
cell boundaries independent more update-intensive
of feature boundaries

Raster encoding

This simple encoding scheme is known as row ordering. The header of the
raster file will typically inform how many rows and columns the raster has,
which encoding scheme is used, and what sort of values are stored for
each cell. Raster files can be quite big data sets. For computational reasons,
it is wise to organize the long list of cell values in such a way that spatially
nearby cells are also near to each other in the list.

DBMS and spatial databases

GIS software packages provide support for both spatial and attribute data,
i.e. they accommodate spatial data storage using a vector approach, and
attribute data using tables. Historically, however, database management
systems (DBMSs) have been based on the notion of tables for data storage.
For some time, sub-stantial GIS applications have been able to link to an
external database to store attribute data and make use of its superior data
management functions. Cur-rently, All major GIS packages provide facilities
to link with a DBMS and ex-change attribute data with it. Spatial (vector)
and attribute data are still some-times stored in separate structures,
although they can now be stored directly in a spatial database

Data maintenance

Maintenance of (spatial) data can best be defined as the combined

activities to keep the data set up-to-date and as supportive as possible to
the user community. It deals with obtaining new data, and entering them
into the system, possibly replacing outdated data. The purpose is to have
an up-to-date stored data set available. After a major earthquake, for
instance, we may have to update our road network data to reflect that
roads have been washed away, or have otherwise become impassable.

Updating spatial data stems from the requirements that the data users
impose, as well as the fact that many aspects of the real world change
continuously. These data updates can take different forms. It may be that a
complete, new survey has been carried out, from which an entirely new
data set is derived that will replace the current set.

3. Spatial query and analysis

The most distinguishing parts of a GIS are its functions for spatial analysis,
i.e. operators that use spatial data to derive new geoinformation. Spatial
queries and process models play an important role in this functionality.
One of the key uses of
GISs has been to support spatial decisions. Spatial decision support
systems(SDSS) are a category of information systems composed of a
database, GIS software, models, and a so-called knowledge engine which
allow users to deal specifically with locational problems.

In a GIS, data are usually grouped into layers (or themes). Usually, several
themes are part of a project. The analysis functions of a GIS use the spatial
and non-spatial attributes of the data in a spatial database to provide
answers
to user questions. GIS functions are used for maintenance of the data, and
for analyzing the data in order to infer information from it. Analysis of
spatial data
can be defined as computing new information that provides new insight
from the existing, stored spatial data.

4. Spatial data presentation

The presentation of spatial data, whether in print or on-screen, in maps or
in tabular displays, or as ‘raw data’, is closely related to the disciplines of
cartography, printing and publishing. The presentation may either be an
end-product, for ex-ample as a printed atlas, or an intermediate product,
as in spatial data made available through the internet

Method Devices
Hard copy printer
plotter (pen plotter, ink-jet printer, thermal
transfer printer, electrostatic plotter)
film writer
Soft copy computer screen
Output of magnetic tape
digital data sets CD-ROM or DVD
the Internet
Q What is Database management systems? What are reasons of using
DBMS in GIS?

Designing a database is not an easy task. Firstly, one has to consider

carefully what the database purpose is, and who its users will be. Secondly,
one needs to identify the available data sources and define the format in
which the data will be organized within the database. This format is usually
called the data-

base structure. Lastly, data can be entered into the database. It is

important to keep the data up-to-date, and it is therefore wise to set up
the processes for this, and make someone responsible for regular
maintenance of the database.

Reasons for using a DBMS

There are various reasons why one would want to use a DBMS for data
storage and processing.

1. A DBMS supports the storage and manipulation of very large data

sets.
2. A DBMS can be instructed to guard over data correctness.
3. A DBMS supports the concurrent use of the same data set by many
users.
4. A DBMS provides a high-level, declarative query language.
5. A DBMS includes data backup and recovery functions to ensure
data avail-ability at all times.
6. A DBMS allows the control of data redundancy.

Q Write a note on the relational data model.

A data model is a language that allows the definition of:

1. The structures that will be used to store the base data,

2. The integrity constraints that the stored data has to obey at all
moments in time, and
 3. The computer programs used to manipulate the data.
For the relational data model, the structures used to define the database
are at-tributes, tuples and relations. Computer programs either perform
data extraction from the database without altering it, in which case we call
them queries, or they change the database contents, and we speak of
updates or transactions

Relations, tuples and attributes

A table or relation is itself a collection of tuples (or records). In fact, each table
is a collection of tuples that are similarly shaped

An attribute is a named field of a tuple, with which each tuple associates a

value, the tuple’s attribute value.

.An attribute’s domain is a (possibly infinite) set of atomic values such as the
set Of integer number values, the set of real number values,etc
When a relation is created, we need to indicate what type of tuples it will
store. This means that we must

1. Provide a name for the relation,

2. Indicate which attributes it will have, and

3. Set the domain of each attribute.

Q. How will you Query a relational database?

The three query operators have some traits in common. First, all of them
require input and produce output, and both input and output are relations!
This guarantees that the output of one query (a relation) can be the input of
another query, and this gives us the possibility to build more and more
complex queries

The first operator is Tuple selection works like a filter: it allows tuples that
meet the selection condition to pass, and disallows tuples that do not meet
the condition

SELECT FROM Parcel

WHERE AreaSize > 1000

A second operator is attribute projection. Attribute projection works like a

tuple formatter: it passes through all tuples of the input, but reshapes each
of them in the same way.

SELECT PId, Location FROM Parcel

Our third query operator differs from the two above in that it requires two
input relations.

The join operator takes two input relations and produces one output
relation, gluing two tuples together (one from each input relation), to form
a bigger tuple, if they meet a specified condition.
SELECT
FROM TitleDeed, Parcel
WHERE TitleDeed.Plot = Parcel.PId

Q. Write a note on Linking GIS and DBMS?

GIS software provides support for spatial data and thematic or attribute
data. GISs have traditionally stored spatial data and attribute data
separately. This required the GIS to provide a link between the spatial data
(represented with rasters or vectors), and their non-spatial attribute data.
The strength of GIS technology lies in its built-in ‘understanding’ of
geographic space and all functions that derive from this, for purposes such
as storage, analysis, and map production.

DBMSs offer much better table functionality, since they are specifically
designed for this purpose. A lot of the data in GIS applications is attribute
data, so it made sense to use a DBMS for it. For this reason, many GIS
applications have made use of external DBMSs for data support. In this
role, the DBMS serves as a centralized data repository for all users, while
each user runs her/his own GIS software that obtains its data from the
DBMS. This meant that a GIS had to link the spatial data represented with
raster’s or vectors, and the attribute data stored in an external DBMS.

With raster representations, each raster cell stores a characteristic value.

This value can be used to look up attribute data in an accompanying
database table

With vector representations, our spatial objects—whether they are points,

lines or polygons—are automatically given a unique identifier by the
system. This identifier is usually just called the object ID or feature ID and is
used to link the spatial object (as represented in vectors) with its attribute
data in an attribute
table.

The ID in the vector system functions as

a key, and any reference to an ID value in the attribute database is a
foreign key reference to the vector system. For example, in Figure 3.8,
parcel is a table with attributes, linked to the spatial objects stored in a GIS
by the Location column. Obviously, several tables may make references to
the vector system, but it is not uncommon to have some main table for
which the ID is actually also the key.
Q. Explain Spatial database functionality

The main problem was that there is additional functionality needed by

DBMS in order to process and manage spatial data. As the capabilities of
our hardware to process information has increased, so too has the desire
for better ways to represent and manage spatial data. During the 1990’s,
object-oriented and object-relational data models were developed for just
this purpose. These extend standard relational models with support for
objects, including ‘spatial’ objects.

Currently, GIS software packages are able to store spatial data using a
range of commercial and open source DBMSs such as Oracle, Informix, IBM
DB2, Sybase, and PostgreSQL, with the help of spatial extensions. Some GIS
software have integrated database ‘engines’, and therefore do not need
these extensions.
ESRI’s ArcGIS, for example, has the main components of the MS Access
data- Spatial DBMS base software built-in. This means that the designer of
a GIS application can
choose whether to store the application data in the GIS or in the DBMS

GIS and spatial databases

Spatial data can be stored in a special database column, known as the

geometry column, (or feature or shape, depending on the specific software
package), as shown in Figure This means GISs can rely fully on DBMS
support for spatial data, making use of a DBMS for data query and storage
(and multi-user support), and GIS for spatial functionality. Small-scale GIS
applications may not require a multi-user capability and can be supported
by spatial data support from a personal database.

Fig. Geometry data stored directly in a spatial database table.

Querying a spatial database

A Spatial DBMS provides support for geographic co-ordinate systems and

transformations. It also provides storage of the relationships between
features, including the creation and storage of topological relationships

SELECT R.Name
FROM Restaurants AS R, Hotels as H
WHERE R.Type = “Thai” AND H.name = “Hilton” AND
ST Intersects(R.Geometry, ST Buffer(H.Geometry, 2000))

In this case the WHERE clause uses the ST Intersects function to perform a
spatial join between a 2000 m buffer of the selected hotel and the selected
subset of restaurants. The Geometry column carries the spatial data.