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Point To Ponder: - "I Think There Is A World Market For Maybe Five Computers."

1. Maps and GIS models emphasize some aspects of reality through abstraction while simplifying others. 2. Abstraction is interpreting reality into representational symbols, while data modeling is abstraction for representation in a GIS. 3. How geographic entities are conceptualized and represented spatially depends on perspective, knowledge, purpose, and scale. Points, lines, areas and surfaces can represent entities dimensionally.

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Dragana Kraljevic Jankovic
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59 views24 pages

Point To Ponder: - "I Think There Is A World Market For Maybe Five Computers."

1. Maps and GIS models emphasize some aspects of reality through abstraction while simplifying others. 2. Abstraction is interpreting reality into representational symbols, while data modeling is abstraction for representation in a GIS. 3. How geographic entities are conceptualized and represented spatially depends on perspective, knowledge, purpose, and scale. Points, lines, areas and surfaces can represent entities dimensionally.

Uploaded by

Dragana Kraljevic Jankovic
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Point to Ponder

• “I think there is a world market for maybe


five computers.”
» Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
Spatial Data Representation
• Maps and GIS are models of reality

– They emphasize some aspects of reality in a


cartographic (and database) representation
while ignoring or greatly simplifying other
aspects of reality.
Spatial Data Representation
• Abstraction

– the process of interpreting what can be sensed


from the real world into representational
symbols (e.g. the category forest)
Spatial Data Representation
• Data Modeling

– the process of abstraction from the real world


for the purpose of representation in a GIS (or
other information system)
Spatial Data Representation
Conceptual Model
Data
Modeling Data Model

Levels
Data Structure

File Structure
Spatial Data Representation
• What geographic entities can be identified in this
landscape?
Spatial Data Representation
• The geographic entities (things) that are
represented in a GIS depend on:

– worldview/perspective
– knowledge
– purpose
of the GIS designer and the GIS user

– and the GIS representational structure


Spatial Data Representation
• Geographic entities can be conceptualized as:

– points
– lines
– areas
– surfaces
[volumes]
Spatial Data Representation
• How geographic entities are conceptualized
depends on:

– your worldview/perspective
– your knowledge
– your purpose
– your scale of conceptualization
Spatial Data Representation
– your scale of conceptualization
State College in the context State College in the
of its location in the state context of its size and
(point feature) shape (area feature)
Spatial Data Representation
• Geographic entities can be spatially
(graphically) represented as spatial elements:

– points 0 dimensional
– lines 1 dimensional
– areas 2 dimensional
– surfaces 2.5 dimensional
– volumes 3 dimensional
Spatial Data Representation
• Most geographic entities exist in three
dimensions through time

• The conceptualization of the geographic


entity to be represented governs the choice
of graphic representation as a (set of)
spatial element(s)
Spatial Data Representation
• Some spatial representation choices are easier
than others:
– roads are represented as lines on road maps of
Pennsylvania

• Some spatial representation choices are more


difficult:
– especially the representation of events and processes
(e.g. soils)
Spatial Data Representation
Spatial Data Representation
• Cartographic generalization - reducing information
so it can be more clearly cartographically represented
Feature elimination - eliminating portions of features
Spatial Data Representation
Feature smoothing - graphically simplifying features
Spatial Data Representation
• Can distinguish between two different
conceptualizations of geographic phenomena:

– object view: empty space ‘littered’ with objects


(e.g. lakes)

– field view: a geographic entity that ‘varies’


across a space (e.g. elevation)
Spatial Data Representation
Object View Field View
Areas within 1 km of hazardous Elevation of the State College area
facility in the Philadelphia area
Spatial Data Representation
Object or field conceptualizations can be spatially represented in
different ways, e.g. the elevation field represented as a surface of
shading values (left) or as a set of discrete contour lines (right).
Spatial Data Representation
Elevation varies
Conceptual Model over the surface
of the earth
Data
Set of lines that
Modeling Data Model represent elevation
(contours)
Levels
Data Structure Vector-Relational

File Structure
Spatial Data Representation
• Geographic entities that are conceptualized as
surfaces can be thought of as:

– discrete: spatial extent of an entity defined by sharp


boundaries (e.g. population density per census block
group)

– continuous: varies ‘smoothly’ over space (e.g.


temperature)
Spatial Data Representation
Population density by Elevation changes smoothly
county in Pennsylvania and continuously over space
changes in discrete steps
Spatial Data Representation
• Is land cover (forested, urban, agricultural, etc.)
conceptualized with an object view or a field view?
– Is land cover an assemblage of individual areas, each a
certain type of cover (object view)? Or is land cover a
spatially varying property that can be measured at any
point in space (field view)?

• Is land cover spatially continuous or discrete?


Spatial Data Representation
• GIS is a model of the real world

• The representation of the real world in a GIS


is determined by:
– the conceptualization of the real world
– the structure of the GIS database representation
• spatial elements GIS supports
• data structures underlying the conceptual level

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