NSCET

E-LEARNING
PRESENTATION
LISTEN … LEARN… LEAD…
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

IV YEAR / VII SEMESTER

OGI352 – Geographical Information System

ARUL JOTHI S/M.E.,MISTE,

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR PHOTO

Nadar Saraswathi College of Engineering & Technology,

Vadapudupatti, Annanji (PO), Theni – 625531.

The fear of the LORD is the
beginning of knowledge, but
fools despise wisdom and
instruction.
 குறள்
கற் க கசடறக் கற் பவை கற் றபின்
நிற் க அதற் குத் தக.
So learn that you may full and faultless learning
gain, Then in obedience meet to lessons learnt
remain
 கல் வி கற் க நல் ல நூல் கவளக் குற் றமறக் கற் க வைண்டும் , அை் ைாறு கற் ற
பிறகு, கற் ற கல் விக்கு தக்கைாறு நநறியில் நிற் க வைண்டும் .
 TOPIC NAME
UNIT 2 - SPATIAL DATA MODELS
 COURSE OUTCOME 2
Understand the types of data
models.
 UNIT 2 SPATIAL DATA MODELS
Database Structures
Relational, Object Oriented
 Entities- ER diagram
 Data models - conceptual, logical and physical models
spatial data models
Raster Data Structures
Raster Data Compression
Vector Data Structures
 Raster vs Vector Models
TIN and GRID data models.
 Database in GIS:
 A database is a collection of related information that permits
the entry, storage, input, output and organization of data.
 A database management system (DBMS) serves as an interface
between users and their database.
 A spatial database includes location. It has geometry as points,
lines and polygons. GIS combines spatial data from many
sources with many different people.
 Databases connect users to the GIS database.
 For example, a city might have the waste water division, land
records, transportation and fire departments connected and
using datasets from common spatial databases.
 The database structure is the collection of record type and field
type definitions that comprise your database:
 Record Types: These define the type of entities or research
objects you wish to capture (e.g. Person).
 Fields: These are the properties or attributes that describe your
record types (e.g. Gender, Age, Height etc.).
 Collectively, these define the information or data that can be
stored in any record of that type.
 Data Structure Models (Structures of
Databases)
 Data models are the conceptual models that describe the
structures of databases.
 Structure of a database is defined by the data types, the
constraints and the relationships for the description or storage of
data.
 Following are the most often used data models:
 Relational Model
 Object oriented Model
 ER Diagram
 Relational Model
 The relational data model was introduced by Codd in 1970.
 The relational database relates or connects data in different files
through the use of a common field.
 A flat file structure is used with a relational database model.
 In this arrangement, data is stored in different tables made up of
rows and columns.
 The columns of a table are named by attributes
 Each row in the table is called a tuple and represents a basic fact.
 No two rows of the same table may have identical values in all
columns.
 There are two crucial data integrity constraints viz.
primary key and foreign key.
 A primary key is an attribute whose value is unique
across all tuples (rows) in a relation (table).
 The primary key of one table appearing as an attribute
of another table is known as a foreign key in that table.
 Relational Model Concepts
 Attribute: Each column in a Table.
 Attributes are the properties which define a relation. e.g.,
Student_Rollno, NAME,etc.
 Tables – In the Relational model the, relations are saved in the table
format. It is stored along with its entities.
 A table has two properties rows and columns. Rows represent records
and columns represent attributes.
 Tuple – It is nothing but a single row of a table, which contains a
single record.
 Relation Schema: A relation schema represents the name of the
relation with its attributes.
 Degree: The total number of attributes which in the relation is
called the degree of the relation.
 Cardinality: Total number of rows present in the Table.
 Column: The column represents the set of values for a specific
attribute.
 Relation instance – Relation instance is a finite set of tuples in
the RDBMS system. Relation instances never have duplicate
tuples.
 Relation key - Every row has one, two or multiple attributes,
which is called relation key.
 Attribute domain – Every attribute has some pre-defined value
and scope which is known as attribute domain.
 Operations in Relational Model
 Four basic update operations performed on relational database
model are Insert, update, delete and select.
 Insert is used to insert data into the relation
 Delete is used to delete tuples from the table.
 Modify allows you to change the values of some attributes in
existing tuples.
 Select allows you to choose a specific range of data.
Whenever one of these operations are applied, integrity
constraints specified on the relational database schema must
never be violated.
 Relational Integrity Constraints
 Relational Integrity constraints are referred to conditions which must
be present for a valid relation. These integrity constraints are derived
from the rules in the mini-world that the database represents. There
are many types of integrity constraints. Constraints on the Relational
database management system are mostly divided into three main
categories are:
 Domain constraints- Domain constraints specify that within each
tuple, and the value of each attribute must be unique. This is
specified as data types which include standard data types integers,
real numbers,
 Key constraints- An attribute that can uniquely identify a tuple in a
relation is called the key of the table. The value of the attribute for
different tuples in the relation has to be unique.
 Referential integrity constraints- is base on the
concept of Foreign Keys.
 A foreign key is an important attribute of a relation
which should be referred to in other relationships.
 Advantages of using Relational model
 Simplicity: A relational data model is simpler than the hierarchical
and network model.
 Structural Independence: The relational database is only
concerned with data and not a structure. This can improve the
performance of the model.
 Easy to use: The relational model is easy as tables consisting of rows
and columns is quite natural and simple to understand.
 Query capability: It makes possible for a high-level query language
like SQL to avoid complex database navigation.
 Data independence: The structure of a database can be
changed without having to change any application.
 Scalable: Regarding a number of records, or rows, and the number
of fields, a database should be enlarged to enhance its usability.
 Disadvantages of using Relational
model
 Few relational databases have limits on field lengths which can't be
exceeded.
 Relational databases can sometimes become complex as the
amount of data grows, and the relations between pieces of data
become more complicated.
 Complex relational database systems may lead to isolated
databases where the information cannot be shared from one system
to another
 Object Oriented Model

 This data model is another method of representing real world

objects.
 It considers each object in the world as objects and isolates it from
each other.
 It groups its related functionalities together and allows inheriting its
functionality to other related sub-groups.
 Elements of Object oriented data model
 Objects
The real world entities and situations are represented as objects in the
Object oriented database model.
 Attributes and Method
Every object has certain characteristics. These are represented using
Attributes. The behaviour of the objects is represented using Methods.
 Class
Similar attributes and methods are grouped together using a class. An
object can be called as an instance of the class.
 Inheritance
A new class can be derived from the original class.
 Advantages
 Because of its inheritance property, we can re-use the attributes and
functionalities.
 It reduces the cost of maintaining the same data multiple times.
 Also, these informations are encapsulated and, there is no fear being
misused by other objects. If we need any new feature we can easily
add new class inherited from parent class and adds new features.
Hence it reduces the overhead and maintenance costs.
 Because of the above feature, it becomes more flexible in the case
of any changes.
 Codes are re-used because of inheritance.
 Since each class binds its attributes and its functionality, it is same as
representing the real world object. We can see each object as a real
entity. Hence it is more understandable.
 Disadvantages
 It is not widely developed and complete to use it in the
database systems. Hence it is not accepted by the users.
 It is an approach for solving the requirement.
 It is not a technology. Hence it fails to put it in the database
management systems.
 Entity-Relationship Model
 Entity-Relationship (ER) Model is based on the notion of real-world
entities and relationships among them.
 While formulating real-world scenario into the database model,
the ER Model creates entity set, relationship set, general attributes
and constraints.
 ER Model is best used for the conceptual design of a database.
 ER Model is based on − Entities and their attributes. Relationships
among entities.
 Entity − An entity in an ER Model is a real-world entity having
properties called attributes.
 Every attribute is defined by its set of values called domain.
 For example, in a school database, a student is considered as an
entity. Student has various attributes like name, age, class, etc.
 Relationship − The logical association among entities is called
relationship.
 Relationships are mapped with entities in various ways. Mapping
cardinalities define the number of association between two
entities.
  Mapping cardinalities
 1. one to one
 2. one to many
 3. many to one
 4. many to many
Attributes are represented by means of their properties, called
attributes. All attributes have values.

For example, a student entity may have name, class, and age as
attributes.
 Types of Attributes
 Simple attribute − Simple attributes are atomic values, which cannot
be divided further.
 For example, a student's phone number is an atomic value of 10 digits.
 Composite attribute − Composite attributes are made of more than
one simple attribute. For example, a student's complete name may
have first_name and last_name.
 Derived attribute − Derived attributes are the attributes that do not
exist in the physical database, but their values are derived from other
attributes present in the database.
 For example, average_salary in a department should not be saved
directly in the database, instead it can be derived.
 For another example, age can be derived from data_of_birth.
 Single-value attribute − Single-value attributes contain single
value. For example − Social_Security_Number.
 Multi-value attribute − Multi-value attributes may contain more
than one values. For example, a person can have more than one
phone number, email_address, etc.
 In the below diagram, Entities or real world objects are
represented in a rectangular box.
 Their attributes are represented in ovals.
 Primary keys of entities are underlined.
 All the entities are mapped using diamonds.
 This is one of the methods of representing ER model.
 Basically, ER model is a graphical representation of real world objects
with their attributes and relationship. It makes the system easily
understandable. This model is considered as a top down approach
of designing a requirement.
Advantages
 It makes the requirement simple and easily understandable by
representing simple diagrams.
 One can covert ER diagrams into record based data model easily.
 Easy to understand ER diagrams
Disadvantages
 No standard notations are available for ER diagram. There is great
flexibility in the notation. It’s all depends upon the designer, how he
draws it.
 It is meant for high level designs. We cannot simplify for low level
design like coding.
 Spatial Data Models
 Spatial data refers to the data or information that describes the
absolute or relative location of geographic features on the earth.
 The non spatial data or the attribute data on the other hand
describes the characteristics of the spatial features.
 These characteristics can be quantitative or qualitative.
 Representation of Space

 Burrough & McDonnell (1998) described two ways to represent the

space (an area, landscape or some bigger unit), which are as
follows:
a) Discrete Entities: The space could be seen as occupied with
entities that are described by their properties and can be located on
earth using coordinate systems.
 The entities have a clear boundary. Buildings, roads, land parcels
etc. are the example of discrete entities.
b) Continuous fields:
 The variation of an attribute over the space as a continuous field.
 No physical boundary can ever be observed in such case.
 Temperature, pressure, elevation etc. across an area are the
examples of continuous fields
 The term spatial data model is used to describe, how geographical
data are organized within a GIS in order to represent real world
phenomena.
 Data Models
 A data model is a description or view of the real world.
 Data modeling is a process that formalizes the description or view
at different levels of data abstraction.
 Since, the real world is made up of complex spatial objects and
phenomena, it is practically impossible for a single data model to
represent everything that is present.
 This means that different users may have different data models
when they attempt to collect data in the same location.
GIS uses one of two spatial data models
 a) Raster data model
 It divides the study area into cells, usually rectangular grid cells.
 It is location based because emphasis is placed upon the location
of each cell relative to other cells.
 It is frequently used to model field data.
 They correspond to regularly spaced points on a continuous
surface.
b) Vector data model
 It is used to represent discrete phenomena, represented by
geometric primitives ( point, line and polygon).
 It is object – based. 3D (TIN) Triangular irregular Network.
 Data models are conceptual models of the real world.
 These describe us the representation and storage of the
geographic data.
 Vector Data Model
 The vector data model is closely linked with the discrete object view.
 In vector data model, geographical phenomena are represented in
three different forms;-point, line and polygon.
 The shape of a spatial entity is stored using two-dimensional (x, y)
coordinate system.
 Point : A location depicted by a single set of (x, y) coordinates at the
scale of abstraction. The wells in a village, electricity poles in a town
and cities in the world map are the examples of spatial features
described by points
 Line/Arc : Ordered sets of (x, y) coordinate pairs arranged to
form a linear feature.
 The curves in a linear feature are generated by increasing the
density of points/vertices.
 The roads, rails and telephone cables are the examples of the
spatial features described by lines.
 Polygon : The set of (x, y) coordinate pairs enclosing a
homogeneous area The land parcels, agricultural farms and
water bodies are the examples of the spatial features described
by polygons.
 Raster Data Model

The raster data model is commonly associated with the field

conceptual model.
 Here, geographic space is represented by array of cells or
pixels (aka picture elements) which are arranged in rows and
columns.
Each pixel has a value that represents information.
 The value can be in the form of integer, floating points or
alphanumeric.
 A point can be represented by a single pixel in raster model.
 A line is a chain of spatially connected cells with the same value.
 Similarly, a water body in raster data is represented as a set of
contiguous pixels having same value that represents a homogeneous
area.
Comparison between Vector and Raster Data Models
 Raster Data Structure

 Raster Data Structure In a simple raster data structure the

geographical entities are stored in a matrix of rectangular cells.
 A code is given to each cell which informs users which entity is
present in which cell.
 The simplest way of encoding a raster data into computers can
be understood as follows:
 Entity model
 Pixel values
 File structure
 Entity model :

 It represents the whole raster data.

 Let us assume that the raster data belongs to an area where land is
surrounded by water.
 Here a particular entity (land) is shown in SHADED color and the area where
land is not present is shown by white.
 b) Pixel values :
 The pixel value for the full image is shown.
 Cells having a part of the land are encoded as 1 and
others where land is not present are encoded as 0
 File structure:
 It demonstrates the method of coding raster data.
 The first row of the file structure data tells that there are 5 rows
and 5 columns in the image, and 1 is the maximum pixel value.
 The subsequent rows have cells with value as either 0 or 1
(similar to pixel values).
 The huge size of the data is a major problem with raster data.
 An image consisting of twenty different land-use classes takes
the same storage space as a similar raster map showing the
location of a single forest.
 Raster Data Compression
 Data compression is the process of modifying, encoding or converting the
bits structure of data in such a way that it consumes less space on disk.
 It enables reducing the storage size of one or more data instances or
elements. Data compression is also known as source coding or bit-rate
reduction.
 Data compression enables sending a data object or file quickly over a
network or the Internet and in optimizing physical storage resources.
 Data compression has wide implementation in computing services and
solutions, specifically data communications.
 Data compression works through several compressing techniques and
software solutions that utilize data compression algorithms to reduce the
data size.
 Raster Data Compression

 A common data compression technique removes and replaces

repetitive data elements and symbols to reduce the data size.
 Data compression for graphical data can be lossless compression
or lossy compression, where the former saves all replaces but save
all repetitive data and the latter deletes all repetitive data.
 Compression techniques
 Run length encoding
 Block encoding
 Chain encoding
 Quadtree
 1.Run Length Coding (Lossless)
 Geographical data tends to be "spatially auto-correlated", meaning
that objects which are close to each other tend to have similar
attributes:
 "All things are related, but nearby things are more related than
distant things" (Tobler 1970)
 Because of this principle, we expect neighboring pixels to have
similar values.
 Therefore, instead of repeating pixel values, we can code the raster
as pairs of numbers - (run length, value).
 2.Block Coding-Grouping Blocks of
Data
 The block coding raster storage technique assigns areas that
are blocks to reduce redundancy.
 The block coding raster image compression method
subdivides an entire raster image into hierarchical blocks.
 It’s an extension of the run length encoding technique, but
extends it to two dimensions.
 In the example : Instead of storing 64 grid cells, all it takes is
just 7 blocks. Using block coding, it requires one 3×3 block,
two 2×2 blocks and four 1×1 cell blocks to encode this raster
image. In this block coding example, the top-left corner is
used as a reference for each block.
 3.Chain Coding (Freeman Coding)-
Defining the Exterior Boundary
 Chain coding defines the outer boundary using relative positions
from a start point.
 The sequence of the exterior is stored where the endpoint finishes at
the start point.
 During the encoding, the direction is stored as an integer. However,
in this example we use cardinal directions for simplicity. For
example, the value 0 is north and 1 is east, 2 is south, 3 is west
 In the example, we start at position (5,2). From here we define the
border using cardinal directions and number of movements. We
move east 3 positions until we hit the edge. At this location, we
move south 4 positions. This process continues until the end point
hits the start point.
 4.Quadtree
 Quadtree Encoding - Subdividing Data into Quarters
 Quadtrees are raster data structures based on the successive reduction of
homogeneous cells.
 It recursively subdivides a raster image into quarters. The subdivision
process continues until each cell is classed.
 It reduces raster storage requirements.
 It also is dependent on the complexity of the feature and the resolution of
the smallest grid cell.
 In the example, the top-left and bottom-right 8×8 grids do not need to be
subdivided further because they are homogeneous. The top-right 8×8 grid
is subdivided into three 4×4 grid. The remaining 4×4 grid is separated into 4
individual classes.
 Image Compression
 Image Compression reduces File size
 GIS data is abundant. With satellites acquiring images each
day, raster data is the spatial model of choice.
 Deploying efficient raster image compression techniques
means reducing storage space.
 This is the primary benefit of compressing your data.
 It can save money and time.
 You can also improve your network performance because you
are working with a reduced amount of data.
 Vector Data Structure
 Geographic entities encoded using the vector data model, are
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 and so are inefficient for
modeling phenomena conceptualized as fields.
 This is also called Feature data
 Vector Data Structure
 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.
 Vector Data Structure-Simple Polygons

 Enclosed structures formed by joining set of XY coordinate pairs. The

structure is simple but 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
 Vector Data Structure
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 neighbouring spatial object
 III. Containment : Information about inclusion of one spatial object
within another spatial object Connectivity- Information about
linkages among spatial objects
 Vector Data Structure
 Connectivity- Information about linkages among spatial objects
 Arc node topology defines connectivity
 arcs are connected to each other if they share a common node.
This is 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.
Vector Data Structure
 Vector Data Structure

 Nodes can be used to represent point features which connect

segments of a linear feature.
 (e.g., intersections connecting street segments, valves connecting
pipe segments).
 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.
Vector Data Structure
 Vector Data Structure

 Contiguity- Information about neighbouring spatial object

 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.
 The from node and to node of an arc indicate its direction,
and it helps determining the polygons on its left and right side.
Vector Data Structure

 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
Vector Data Structure
 Vector Data Structure
 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
 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 trace 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.
 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
 Vector and Raster - Advantages and
Disadvantages
Vector : Advantages
 Data can be represented at its original resolution and form without
generalization.
 Graphic output is usually more aesthetically pleasing (traditional
cartographic representation);
 Since most data, e.g. hard copy maps, is in vector form no data
conversion is required.
 Accurate geographic location of data is maintained.
 Allows for efficient encoding of topology, and as a result more
efficient operations that require topological information, e.g.
proximity, network analysis.
 Vector : Disadvantages

 The location of each vertex needs to be stored explicitly.

 For effective analysis, vector data must be converted into a
topological structure. This is often processing intensive and usually
requires extensive data cleaning. As well, topology is static, and any
updating or editing of the vector data requires re-building of the
topology.
 Algorithms for manipulative and analysis functions are complex and
may be processing intensive. Often, this inherently limits the
functionality for large data sets, e.g. a large number of features.
 Continuous data, such as elevation data, is not effectively
represented in vector form. Usually substantial data generalization or
interpolation is required for these data layers.
 Spatial analysis and filtering within polygons is impossible.
 Raster Advantages :
 The geographic location of each cell is implied by its position in the
cell matrix.
 Accordingly, other than an origin point, e.g. bottom left corner, no
geographic coordinates are stored.
 Due to the nature of the data storage technique data analysis is
usually easy to program and quick to perform.
 The inherent nature of raster maps, e.g. one attribute maps, is
ideally suited for mathematical modeling and quantitative analysis.
 Discrete data, e.g. forestry stands, is accommodated equally well
as continuous data, e.g. elevation data, and facilitates the
integrating of the two data types.
 Grid-cell systems are very compatible with raster-based output
devices, e.g. electrostatic plotters, graphic terminals.
 Raster : Disadvantages
 The cell size determines the resolution at which the data is represented.
 It is especially difficult to adequately represent linear features depending on
the cell resolution. Accordingly, network linkages are difficult to establish.
 Processing of associated attribute data may be cumbersome if large
amounts of data exist. Raster maps inherently reflect only one attribute or
characteristic for an area.
 Since most input data is in vector form, data must undergo vector-to-raster
conversion. Besides increased processing requirements this may introduce
data integrity concerns due to generalization and choice of inappropriate
cell size.
 Most output maps from grid-cell systems do not conform to high-quality
cartographic needs.
 It is often difficult to compare or rate GIS software that use different
data models. Some personal computer (PC) packages utilize vector
structures for data input, editing, and display but convert to raster
structures for any analysis.
 Other more comprehensive GIS offerings provide both integrated
raster and vector analysis techniques. They allow users to select the
data structure appropriate for the analysis requirements
 Triangular Irregular Network (TIN) and
Grid Data models

 A TIN is a data structure that defines geographic space as a set of

contiguous, non-overlapping triangles, which vary in size and
angular proportion.
 Like grids, TINs are used to represent surfaces such as elevation,
and can be created directly from files of sample points.
 The TIN data structure is defined by two elements: a set of input
points with x,y, and z values, and a series of edges connecting
these points to form triangles.
 Each input point becomes the node of a triangle in the TIN
structure, and the output is a continuous faceted surface of
triangles
 The triangles are constructed according to a mathematical
technique called Delaunay triangulation.
 The technique guarantees that a circle drawn through the three
nodes of any triangle will contain no other input point.
 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 model.
 The information related to TIN is stored in a file or a database
table.
 Calculation of elevation, slope, and aspect is easy with TIN but
these are less widely available than raster surface models and
more time consuming in term of construction and processing
 The TIN model is a vector data model which is stored using the
relational attribute tables.
 A TIN dataset contains three basic attribute tables: Arc attribute table
that contains length, from node and to node of all the edges of all 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 and 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.
 The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
 The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international not for profit
organization committed to making quality open standards for the global
geospatial community.
 These standards are made through a consensus process and are freely
available for anyone to use to improve sharing of the world's geospatial
data.
 Description of the OGC The OGC provides open standard specifications
with the aim to facilitate and encourage the use of these standards
when organisations develop their own geospatial software, or online
geoportals offering data and software services online.
 The collection of geoportals and various other complimentary services,
create a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).
 Participation of organisations from the public sector, private sector,
academia and research when developing standards assures the interests
and needs of the geospatial community are considered.