GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

• Introduction

• Software architecture and functionality

• Spatial data handling stages

 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

Introduction
• GIS is used in many disciplines, however th
scientific field that deals with all aspects of
spatial data is called Geoinformatics or called
geomatics
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• Working with spatial data involves the

following processes:-
– Data acquisition
– Data storage

– Data analysis
– Data dissemination
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software architecture
• GIS software
– Can be defined as a computer-based system that
provides the four sets of capabilities to handle
georeferenced data:
• Data capture and preparation
• Data management (storage and maintenance)
• Data manipulation
• Data presentation
• GIS Software has analytical functions that provide means of deriving
new geoinformation from existing spatial and attribute data
 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
software architecture
• A Geographic Information System consists of:
– software and hardware
– Data
– People and
– An organization where it functions
 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
software architecture
• GIS software
– Consists of modules for
• Data capture (input) and preparation
• Data management (storage and maintenance)
• Data manipulation
• Data presentation (output)

• GIS Software has analytical functions that provide means of

deriving new geoinformation from existing spatial and attribute
data
 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
software architecture- GIS functionalities
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Spatial data handling stages
•Spatial data capture and preparation

-Spatial data capture is related to disciplines of engineering surveying,

Photogrammetry, remote sensing and processes of digitizing

-Format transformation functions – conversion between data formats of

different systems or representations e.g. DXF file into a GIS (Shape file)

-Geometric transformations – transforming coordinates from digitizing

tablets or screen coordinates into world coordinates

-
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Spatial data handling stages
•Spatial data capture and preparation
-Map projections – mapping geographic coordinates onto a flat surface and vice

versa

-Edge matching – process of joining two or more map sheets or separately

digitized data layers

-Graphic element editing – changing or modifying digitized features so as to

correct errors, and to prepare a clean data set for topology building

-Coordinate thinning - a process that is applied to remove redundant or excess

vertices from line representations as obtained from digitizing

-
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Spatial data storage and maintenance
• Spatial data is organized in layers by theme e.g. land use,
topography, administrative boundaries etc.

• Data stored in Spatial database are represented with geometric

and non geometric attributes and their relationships
- the geometry of features is represented with primitives of respective
dimensions

-Vector data types describe an object through its boundary

-Raster approach subdivides the space into cells (regular or irregular),

the cells are called pixels in 2D and Voxels in 3D
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Spatial data storage and maintenance
• The storage of raster data is straight forward – is
stored in a file as a long list of values, one for each
cell and it is preceded by a small list of extra data
that has information on how to interpret the long
list
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Spatial data storage and maintenance
• Advantages and disadvantages of raster and vector data
representations
Raster representation Vector representation
advantages
• Simple data structure •. Efficient representation of topology
•Simple implementation of overlays •Adapts well to scale changes
•Efficient for image processing •Allows representing networks
•Allows easy association with attribute
data
disadvantages
.less compact data structure Complex data structure
Difficulties in representing topology Overlay more difficult to implement
Cell boundaries independent of feature Inefficient for image processing
boundaries More update-intensive

Table 1
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Spatial querying and analysis
• The most distinctive parts of a GIS are its functions
for spatial analysis
– Operators that use spatial data to derive new
information

• Spatial data analysis can be defined as computing

from existing, stored spatial data new information
that provides new insights.
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Spatial querying and analysis
• Classification, retrieval, and measurement
functions
– It allows to assign features to a class on the basis of
attribute values or attribute ranges (definition of data
patterns)
• Pixels of raster can be classified on the basis of reflectance
characteristics found in a raster – pixels can represent different crops
e.g. maize, tobacco etc.
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Spatial querying and analysis
• Classification, retrieval, and measurement functions
– Allow the selective search of data from the database or attribute table

• Generalization is a function that joins different classes of

objects with common characteristics to a higher level
class e.g. Generalize fields of potato or maize and other
crops as crop fields
• Measurement functions allow the calculation of
distances, lengths, or areas
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Spatial data analysis
• Overlay functions
– are the most frequently used functions in a GIS application

– They allow the combination of two or more spatial data layers,

comparing them position by position, and treating areas of overlap
and of non-overlap in distinct ways.
• Using these function, intersections, unions, differences and complements of
spatial areas.
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Spatial data analysis
• Neighbourhood functions
– Operate on the vicinity of a given feature(s)

– They scan the neighbourhood of the given feature(s) and perform

a computation on it.
– Provide Search functions – which allow the retrieval of features
that fall within a given search window – the search window may be
a rectangle, circle or polygon
– Provide Buffer zone generation function – it determines a spatial
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Spatial data analysis
• Neighbourhood functions
– Provide interpolation functions which predict unknown values using
the known values at nearby locations
• It occurs with continuous fields e.g. Elevation
— Provide Topographic functions which determine characteristics of an area by looking at
immediate neighbourhood. E.g. slope computations on digital terrain models other
computations can be performed such as:
— Determination of slope angle
— Determination of slope aspect
— Determination of slope length
— Determination of contour lines

– Provide connectivity functions which accumulate values as they transverse over a

feature or over a set of features
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Spatial data analysis
• Neighbourhood functions
– Provide network analytical functions – used to compute over
connected line features that make up the network
• Network may consist of roads, public transport routes, high voltage lines or
other transportation infrastructure
• Analysis of this kind entail shortest path computations, determination of
capacity of the network for transportation

— Provide visibility functions – used to compute the points visible

from a given location (viewshed modeling or viewed mapping)
using a digital terrain model
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Spatial data presentation
• Presentation of spatial data (whether by printed or on
screen displays maps, tabular displays) is very much
related to the discipline of cartography, printing and
publishing
•The presentation may be either an intermediate or end
product
•The World Wide Web is playing a very important role on
map display on the internet (web mapping)
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Spatial data presentation
Devices used in different methods of spatial data presentation

Method Devices
Hard copy •Printer
•Plotter (pen plotter, ink jet printer, thermal transfer
printer, electrostatic plotter)
•Film writer
Soft copy Computer screen (CRT), Geo-explorer hand held GPS
Output of digital data sets Magnetic tape
CD-ROM or DVD
Internet
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• A database is a large, computerized collection

of structured data
• A database management system (DBMS) is a
software package that allows the user to set
up, use and maintain a database
– A DBMS offers generic functionality for database
organization and data handling
• i.e. database storage and processing
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Importance of using a DBMS

• A DBMS supports the storage and manipulation of very
large data sets

• A DBMS can be instructed to guard over data correctness

also called integrity constraint
– E.g. data entry checking – making sure that the right data is
entered in the database

– Integrity constraints are usually defined during database design

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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Importance of using a DBMS

•A DBMS supports the concurrent use of the same
data set by many users
•Different views on the data can be defined for different
users of the database which can facilitate the usage of the
database at the same time without affecting each other’s
activities. This function is called concurrency control
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Importance of using a DBMS

•A DBMS provides a high level declarative query
language
•A query is a computer program that extracts data from
the database that meet the conditions indicated in the
query
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Importance of using a DBMS

•A DBMS supports the use of a data model.
•A data model is a language with which one can define a
database structure and manipulate the data stored in it.
•The most prominent data model is the relational data
model
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Importance of using a DBMS

•A DBMS includes data backup and recovery
functions to ensure data availability at all times
•The data must be safeguarded against any calamities

•Regular backups of data sets and automatic recovery

schemes provide insurance against data loss.
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Importance of using a DBMS

•A DBMS allows the control of data redundancy
•Data redundancy is when data has been stored multiple
times and this leads to stored facts to contradict each other
•Data redundancy can be allowed in the database but
there is need to define it in DBMS so the system to control
it.
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Relational data model

• A data model is a language that allows the
definition of:
– The structures that will be used to store the base
data
– The integrity constraints that the stored data has
to obey at all moments in time, and
– The computer programs used to manipulate the
data
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Relational data model

• The structures used to define the database are
attributes, tuples and relations.
 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Relational data model

• Relations, tuples and attributes definitions
– Database is a collection of relations which is also
known as tables
– A table or relation is itself a collection of tuples (or
records). And each table is a collection of tuples that
are similarly shaped
• A tuple has a fixed number of named fields also known as
attributes
• All tuples in the same relation have the same named fields
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DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Relational data model
• Relations, tuples and attributes definitions
–An attribute is a named field of a tuple, with which each tuple associates a value, the tuple’s attribute value.
–When creating a relation, the following should be defined:

1.Provide a name for the relation

2.Indicate which attributes it will have, and
3.Set the domain of each attribute
—A relation defined in this way is known as the relation schema
—A database schema is collection of relation schemas
—Relation instance is a set of tuples in a relation at some point in time
—Database instance is one relation instance for each relation
—A Key of a relation comprises of one or more attributes. A value for these attributes uniquely identifies a
tuple