Introduction to GIS

GIS DATABASE CONCEPTS

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GIS are driven by spatial data......

Two basic spatial(coordinate/geometric) data model exist

VECTOR: BASED ON GEOMETRY OF

Points
Lines
Polygons

RASTER : based on geometry of

Grid cells (images, bitmaps, DEM)

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 Vector data model

Discrete - Boundaries are well defined (x,y coordinates)

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Point

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 Line :

Linestars and end at nodes here Line #1 goes from node #2 to #1

Vertices determines shape of line
Nodes and vertices are stored as coordinate pairs

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Polygon

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POINT REPRESENTATION
VECTOR DATA... Nature of the feature:
the reality suggests a
point (it is not linear
in nature, does not
occupy an area):
GPS Location
hydrant
rare plant
location
seep location
Typically used for
small scale
representation.
Relative positioning
and density of
features is important.
Polygons can be
represented as
centroids --a special
kind of point.
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LINE REPRESENTATION
VECTOR DATA...
Nature of the feature, the
reality is the feature is linear:
Kinematic GPS Path
extent of rare plant
community
seep drainage
Used at all scales, although
may appear as a point at
extreme small scales.
Networks are typically
represented as single lines
with events associated with
segments of the network,
e.g. Capital Works Projects
associated with street
segments.
Networks typically have
traces performed to
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determine paths and routes.
POLYGON REPRESENTATION
VECTOR DATA...
Nature of the feature, it
occupies an area.
GPS Location
rare plant community
area of seepage
Typically used at mid to
large scales
(dependent on the size
of the feature/polygon).
Often the relative
location of a second
feature is important,
e.g. hydrants (points)
located in a road
allowance (polygon).
Polygons can be
represented as centroids
--a special kind of point.
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Major types (formats) of vector data available in ArcGIS
ArcView shape file (shp, dbf, shx, together)
ESRI Geodatabase (personal, ArcSDE)
ESRI Filegeodatabase (New for 9.2 and above)
ArcInfo Coverage

CAD files (AutoCAD dWG, DXF, MicroStation DGN)

Street map files

Spatial Database Engine (SDE) data

ASC11 point coordinate data

Linear measure (route) data

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ArcView shapefiles

Preferred vector format in ArcView

Display quickly
Fully editable (coordinate and tabular) in ArcView
Simple in structure
Data sets are either point or line or polygon

ESRI Geodatabase
Based on shapefile data model
Multiple data sets stored ina relational database file
Stored in MS Access database or higher-end database
Separate points, line, and polygon data sets are stored within
the same Geodatabase

ASC11 coordinate data

Easy to obtain from a variety of sources
- GPS
- Traverse (survey)
- Direct reading from maps
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 Characteristics of the vector data model:

+ Features are positioned accurately

+ Shape of features can be represented correctly
+ Features are represented discretely (no fuzzy boundaries)

- Not good for representing spatially continues phenomena

ex: precipitation measurement, forest cover, animal
home range
- Potential complex data structure (specially for polygons
can lead to long processing time for analytical operations)

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 Raster Data Model
The world is composed of
cells/pixels arranged in a grid

Each cell/pixel is assigned a

numeric value
Integer (no decimal)
Floating-point (decimal)
(However data may be represented by codes)

The size of the cell/pixel

determines the resolution

Every location given an object 14

 DATA MODEL OF RASTER AND VECTOR

REAL WORLD
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

GRID RASTER VECTOR 15

 Lake

Pond

Reality - Hydrography

Lake

Pond

Reality overlaid with a grid

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 0 0 = No Water Feature
0 1 1 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 = Water Body
0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 = River
0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Resulting raster

Creating a Raster 16
Raster Data Model

Origin is set explicitly

Cell size is always known
Cell references (row/column locations) are known
Cell values are referenced to row/column location
Values represent numerical phenomena or index codes for
non numerical phenomena

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Characteristics of the raster data model

Rectangular grid of square cells

- Shape of discrete polygonal features generalized by cells
+ Continuous (surface) data represented easily
+ Simple data structure

Raster data are good at representing continues phenonena

eg..
- Wind speed
- Elevation, slope, aspect
- Chemical concentration
- Likelihood of existence of a certain species
- Electromagnetic reflectance (Photography or Satellite imagery)

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 Types of Raster Data
Remotely Sensed Images
Satellite
Landsat (http://landsat.usgs.gov/)
AVHRR (http://edc.usgs.gov/products/satellite/avhrr.html)
SPOT (http://www.spot.com/)

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)

U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) DEMs
LIDAR (light detection and ranging)
Multibeam sonar (acoustics for capturing depth information)
Digital Orthophotos

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 Types of Raster Data Images
Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs)
Scanned USGS topographic maps
(http://topomaps.usgs.gov/drg/)

Graphic Image Files historic aerial photos,

scanned paper maps
.tif (Tagged Image File Format)
sid (LizardTech MrSID)
.img (ERDAS Imagine)
.jpg (Joint Photographic Experts Group).
Many packages work on RECTIFYING these images
photographs scale is not constant across image
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 Raster Data Formats
ESRI Grids
Proprietary format
Discrete integer (whole
number)
Continuous floating point
(number with decimals)

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Raster Resolution
RASTER DATA...
Expressed as the ground pixel measured in cm (aerial) or
m (satellite).
15 cm resolution or ground pixel means that each pixel
in the image corresponds to 15cm on the ground.

Dependent on source scale and scan rate:

1:6,000 scale photography (inch)

1100 dots per inch (dpi) scan rate (What is the RS?)
1 = 0.0254 m x 6,000 = 152.4 m (1 of the image represents
154.4m on the ground)
152.4m / 1100 = 0.138 m; or
13.8 cm (RS) each pixel of image represent 13.8cm on the ground
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Raster Resolution
RASTER DATA...

Resolution:
Refers to how accurately the location and shape
of map feature can be depicted (presented) at a
given scale
Large Scale Maps have better resolution
because the reduction is less
As Scale becomes smaller, more and more
features become too small to display

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Raster Resolution
RASTER DATA...

Accuracy:
Accuracy of a raster image
relates to positional location of a
pixel relative to its true position.

Accuracy is a combination of resolution, map

scale (drafting skills, thickness of lines)
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 Raster Resolution
RASTER DATA...

Scale
The image scale or map scale as it is sometime called refers
to the relative
difference in size or distance between the image and the
features represented on the ground. This difference is written
as a ratio of image distance over ground distance. For
example, a scale of 1:100,000 (one to one hundred
thousand) means 1 centimeter on the map equals 100,000
centimeters (1km) on the ground. The following is a list of
scales and equivalent ground distances for three distances
measured on an image.

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 Raster Resolution
RASTER DATA...
1 mm on 3 mm on image 5 mm on image
Image scale
image

1:10,000 10 m 30 m 500 m
1:40,000 40 m 120 m 2,000 m
1:100,000 100 m 300 m 5,000 m
1:500,000 500 m 1,500 m 25,000 m

One often refers to a scale as being larger or smaller than another scale. This can
be confusing, especially since scales are often referred to solely by their
denominator. For example a scale of 1:100,000 (one to one hundred thousand)
may be called a scale of 100,000 when it is actually a ratio of 1/100,000. A scale of
1:100,000 is smaller than a scale of 1:40,000 because the number 1/100,000 is
smaller than 1/40,000 (or as it is often stated, a scale of 100,000 is smaller than a
scale of 40,000). Another way to look at this is to think of a lake on an image with a
scale of 1:100,000 and another with a scale of 1:40,000. The lake will be larger on
the 1:40,000 image because the scale is larger 28
 Grid of cells called
pixels

Two dimensional

Each pixel has a

discrete value, I.e.
grey scale value

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 Raster and Vector Summary
Vectors have advantage of accuracy but not good
with continuous fields
Vectors were used first - digitizing
Earliest include ASCII (x,y coordinates but got too
large) then binary took over.
Raster not good with lines or points but good with
continuous coverage areas.
Raster has the mixed pixel problem.

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Vector Advantages

Requires less disk storage space

Topological relationships are readily maintained
Graphical output more closely resembles hand-drawn maps
Preferred for network analysis

Vector Disadvantages

More complex data structure

Not as compatible with remotely sensed data
Software and hardware are often more expensive
Some spatial analysis procedures may be more difficult
Overlaying multiple vector maps is often time consuming
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 ATTRIBUTE DATA
GIS DATABASE CONCEPTS...

www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/datacon/datacon.html

Read and make notes...........

3. Organizing Attribute Data

a. Flat Files
b. Hierarchical Files
c. Relational files Very Important

4. Representing Relationship
5. Topological Relationship very Important

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Attribute data are stored in database tables

Tables are composed of:

1. Fields
2. Records

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 Relational files ......

Connect different files or tables (relations) without using internal pointers or keys.
Instead a common link of data is used to join or associate records
A "matrices of tables" is used to store the information
The tables have a common link they may be combined by the user to form
new inquires and data output

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ArcGIS uses tabular data formats from dbase, ASC11 text, and INFO files

Tables are stored on the disk as

.dbf files
.txt files or
binary files in INFO directories

Each vector data source has an attribute table

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Tables can be linked and joined (Related) by use of common values in fields

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 Relationship between map and tabular data....
One to one between feature and records
When selection is made, both the record and the feature are selected

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Different types data that may have attribute tables in ArcGIS

Vector

Point attribute
Polygon attribute
Line attribute
Node attribute
Text attribute
Route and event
CAD attribute

Raster

Value attribute table

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 Topology.......
It is defined as the mathematics of connectivity or adjacency of points or lines
that determines spatial relationships in a GIS
The topological data structure logically determines exactly how and where
points and lines connect on a map by means of nodes (topological junctions).

example to see how connections are coded into a database

The first step is to record the

location of all "nodes," that is endpoints
and intersections of lines and boundaries

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Based upon these nodes, "arcs" are defined
These arcs have endpoints, but they are also assigned a direction indicated
by the arrowheads.
The starting point of the vector is referred to as the "from node"
and the destination the "to node."
It is possible to use this information to establish routes from node to node
or place to place. Thus, if one wants to move from node 3 to node 1

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 "polygons" are defined by arcs.
To define a given polygon, trace around its area in a clockwise direction recording
the component arcs and their orientations

Finally, for each arc, one records which polygon lies to the left and right side of
its direction of orientation.

If an arc is on the edge of the study area, it is bounded by the "universe."

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 Questions about connectivity and location......

What polygons adjoin polygon A?

first look to see what arcs define polygon A, then we check to see
what other polygons are defined by these arcs in their negative orientation

What is the shortest route from node 3 to node 2?

Trace all arc paths that lead from node 3 to node 2,
sum their lengths by calculating distances from node list 42
 Topological Vector Model
Topological data models are provided with information that can
help us in obtaining solutions to common operations in
advanced GIS analytical techniques.
This is done by explicitly recording adjacency information into
the data structure, eliminating the need to determine it for
multiple operations.
Each line segment, the basic logical entity in topological data
structures, begins and ends when it either contacts or intersects
another line, or when there is a change in direction of the line.

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 Terminology
Point: x, y coordinate identifying a geographic
location
Link (line, arc): an ordered set of points with a
node at the beginning and end of it
Node: the beginning and end of link (often
defined where 3 or more lines connect)
Polygon: two or more links connected at the
nodes, contains a point inside to identify the
polygons attributes

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