Geoinformatics

Muhammad Nadeem Akhtar

E Mail: nadeem.akhter@ce.uol.edu.pk
URL: https://sites.google.com/site/ceuolgis/home/gislectures

Nadeem Akhtar, CE UOL LHR

To use GIS the real world must be abstracted

into points, lines, polygons, raster cells, and
attribute values
Class examples may use common object that
most people will understand. If you
understand how to abstract common objects
you will be able to apply the same method to
object in your field

Nadeem Akhtar, CE UOL LHR

A representation of the world using points,

lines, and polygons. Vector models are useful
for storing data that has discrete boundaries,
such as country borders, land parcels, and
streets.
Vector Data model uses Points and their
(X,Y) coordinates to represent spatial
features.

Nadeem Akhtar, CE UOL LHR

Nadeem Akhtar, CE UOL LHR

A point is a 0 dimensional object and has

only the property of location (x,y)

Points can be used to Model features such as

a well, building, power, pole, sample
location ect.
Other name for a point are vertex, node, 0cell

Nadeem Akhtar, CE UOL LHR

A line is a one-dimensional object that has

the property of length
Lines can be used to represent road,
streams, faults, dikes, boundary etc.
Lines are also called an edge, link, chain,
arc, 1-cell
In an ArcInfo coverage an arc starts with a
node, has zero or more vertices, and ends
with a node

Nadeem Akhtar, CE UOL LHR

A polygon is a two-dimensional object with

properties of area and perimeter

A polygon can represent a city, geologic

formation, dike, lake, river, etc.
Other name for polygons face, zone 2-cell

Scale matters

Nadeem Akhtar, CE UOL LHR

If you do not understand this the rest of GIS

will not make sense

Scale Matters

Intended/Planned use Matters

Nadeem Akhtar, CE UOL LHR

Trees
Dikes
Roads
Rivers

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In geo databases, the arrangement that constrains how point,

line, and polygon features share geometry.

For example, street centerlines and census blocks share

geometry, and adjacent soil polygons share geometry.

Topology defines and enforces data integrity rules (for example,

there should be no gaps between polygons).

It supports topological relationship queries and navigation (for

example, navigating feature adjacency or connectivity), supports
sophisticated editing tools, and allows feature construction from
unstructured geometry (for example, constructing polygons from
lines).

The branch of geometry that deals with the properties of a figure

that remain unchanged even when the figure is bent, stretched,
or otherwise distorted.

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A set of rules on how objects relate to each

other
Major difference in file formats
Higher level objects have special topology
rules

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Figure 2-9 GIS Fundamentals, Bolstad

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Spaghetti data
[data capture] Vector data composed of simple lines with no
topology and usually no attributes. Spaghetti lines may cross, but
no intersections are created at those crossings.

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A set of rules used to define a consistent method of building point,

line and polygon features from spaghetti-digitized data. For
example, planar enforcement includes rules that polygons of
differing soil types cannot overlap, and that lines must be split at
intersections.

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Error Detection
open polygons
unlabeled polygons
polygons that cannot exist next to each
other
Network Modeling

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1.
2.
3.
4.

Regions
Networks
TIN Triangulated irregular network
Dynamic Segmentation

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Overlapping areas with different attributes

(Like Fire history)
Disconnected areas with the same attributes
Hawaii ( A State of US)

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Road systems, power grids, water supply

sewerage systems, drainage network
Continuous connected networks
Rules for displacement in a network
Attribute value accumulations due to
displacements

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[data structures]Acronym fortriangulated irregular

network.
A vector data structure that partitions geographic space
into contiguous, non overlapping triangles.
The vertices of each triangle are sample data points with
x-, y-, and z-values. These sample points are connected by
lines to form Delaunay triangles.
TINs are used to store and display surface models.
A set of non overlapping triangles each with a constant
gradient
A TIN can honor original input elevations

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TIN

Delaunay triangles

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[data analysis]The process of computing the map

locations of linearly referenced data (for example,
attributes stored in a table) at run time so they can be
displayed on a map, queried, and analyzed using a GIS.
The dynamic segmentation process enables multiple sets
of attributes to be associated with any portion of a line
feature without segmenting the underlying feature.
In the transportation field, examples of such linearly
referenced data might include accident sites, road quality,
and traffic volume.
Combines a line coverage with a linear reference system
Has event tables for point events and linear events

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Nontopological
Advantages no overhead to process topology
Disadvantages polygons are double digitized,
no topologic data checking
3 files .shp .shx .dbf

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New GIS Format at ArcGIS 8.0

Three Types
Personal

Geodatabase

Microsoft

File

Geodatabase

XML

SDE

access 2000 database

based file

GeoDatabase

Multi-user
Can

connect to many RDBMS

Oracle, SQL server, Informix

File are stored in the format native to the RDBMS

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Generic Structure Of a Grid.

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Each Grid Cell holds one value even if it is empty.

A cell can hold an index standing for an attribute.
Cell resolution is given as its size on the ground.
Point and Lines move to the center of the cell.
Minimum line width is one cell.
Rasters are easy to read and write, and easy to draw
on the screen.

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VAT Acronym forvalueattributetable. A table containing attributes

for a grid, including user-defined attributes, the values assigned to
cells in the grid, and a count of the cells with those values.
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[data structures]In raster datasets, a reduced resolution layer

that copies the original data in decreasing levels of resolution to
enhance performance. The coarsest level of resolution is used to
quickly draw the entire dataset. As the display zooms in, layers
with finer resolutions are drawn; drawing speed is maintained
because fewer pixels are needed to represent the successively
smaller areas.

With out pyramids the entire raster must be read for each screen
draw

Pyramids store reduced resolution dataset files .rrd to increase

the speed of screen draws

When you add a raster to ArcMap if pyramids do not exist you can
create them

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Nearest Neighbor
A technique for resampling raster data in which the value of each cell in
an output raster is calculated using the value of the nearest cell in an
input raster.
Nearest neighbor assignment does not change any of the values of cells
from the input layer; for this reason it is often used to resample
categorical or integer data (for example, land use, soil, or forest type),
or radiometric values, such as those from remotely sensed images.

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Bilinear interpolation
A resampling method that uses a weighted
average of the four nearest cells to
determine a new cell value.

Continuous

data only

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Cubic Convolution
A

technique for resampling raster data in which

the average of the nearest 16 cells is used to
calculate the new cell value.
Continuous data only

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A method for encoding raster data that reduces storage

requirements and improves access speeds by storing values only
for homogeneous regions rather than for every pixel.

The raster is recursively subdivided into quadrants until all

regions are homogeneous or until some specified level has been
reached.

May be use to get variable resolution for imagery in the National

Map

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An area of land having a particular characteristic, such as sandy

terrain or mountainous terrain.

New Dataset for ArcGIS 9.2

They are a Multi-resolution, Tin-based surface.

Comprised of measurements stored as features in a geodatabase.

Terrains live inside Feature Datasets, in a geodatabase.

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Two Main characteristics of Terrains:

Feature

classes participate in a terrain

Rules are established to generate TIN pyramids
on-the fly (during transaction).

They are designed to handle mass volumes of

point data in a logical and efficient storage
mechanism.

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Figure 4.35 Geographic Information Systems and Introduction,

Bernhardsen (2001), p. 87

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Yes raster is faster, but raster is vaster, and

vector just seems more corrector

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ArcGIS can use many common image formats

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Some Industries have created standard data

models
It is a good idea to use a standard model to
promote sharing of data
Some data models can be very complex
Complex models require custom tools to be
useful

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Getting Started with Geographic Information Systems 4th

Edition, Clark (2003)
Geographic Information Systems an Introduction 3rd
Edition, Bernhardsen (2002)
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems 2 nd
Edition, Chang (2004)
GIS Fundamentals, Bolstad (2002)
ArcGIS 8.3 Desktop Help
Using GRID with ArcInfo version 7 ESRI

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Thanks!
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