Spatial Data: What GIS Uses
Bigfoot Sightings: Spatial Data
A GIS
Provides the
Ability to
Analyze
Disparate Data
Sets Based on
Location
Spatial and Attribute Data
Spatial data (where)
specifies location
Attribute data (what)
specifies what is at that location
stored in a database table
A GIS will link spatial and attribute
data for display or analysis
Spatial Elements
4 Types of Phenomena
Points
1
2
Points occur at one location in space.
Examples include houses, trees etc.
Discrete or fixed: Occupies one space at
any time.
Moving: Examples include, cars, fish, deer
They have no spatial dimension.
Lines
Occupy a single dimension.
Examples include: roads, boundaries, and
networks.
Do not have a width, but length can be
measured.
Area
3
1
2
2-dimensional objects
Length and width can be measured
Surfaces, which include two types:
Discrete, has a definite boundary ex: towns
Continuous, has a changing boundary ex:
meandering river
Volume
3-dimensional.
Examples include the volume of water in a
lake, air masses.
Continuous data includes: elevation,
rainfall, ocean salinity
Moving data includes: air masses, animal
herds, schools of fish
GIS Attempts to Describe All
Features in Geometric Terms.
Points: surveyed
locations, new
construction,
community resources
Lines: roads, transit
routes
Areas: parcel maps,
zip codes, census
tracts
Data Types - 4 Types
nominal
no inherent ordering
land use types, county names
yes or no data
ordinal
inherent order
road class; stream class
hierarchy
can be compared
interval
known distance between values
no natural zero
can be compared
ratio
natural zero
ratios make sense (e.g. twice as
much)
income, age, rainfall
Data Types
GIS Links Spatial Data with Attribute
Data for a Feature on a Map
The information is
stored as attributes
of the graphically
represented feature.
Feature List
Feature No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Roads Map
4
6
1
2
5
3,5
5,5
8,5
6,9
5,5
0,5
X,Y Pairs
5,5
8,5
9,5
5,4 5,7 5,6 5,5
4,4 4,1
3.2
Attribute Table
Feature No. Road-Type Surface
1
2
Asphalt
2
2
Asphalt
3
2
Asphalt
4
1
Concrete
5
1
Concrete
Width
48
48
48
60
60
Lanes
4
4
4
4
4
Name
N. Main St.
N. Main St.
N. Main St.
Hwy. 42
Hwy. 42
Example: A line that denotes a road shows its location. An attribute table
stores all relevant information about this feature, which can be queried
and displayed in a format based on the users needs
There are Two Ways to Acquire
Spatial Data to Put Into a GIS
1. You purchase, or are given an existing data set
2. You go out and collect the data yourself
Major GIS Data Sources
Maps
Drawings (sketch or engineering)
Aerial (or other) Photographs
Satellite Imagery/Digital Ortho Photography
CAD data bases
Government & commercial spatial (GIS) data bases
Government & commercial attribute data bases
Paper records and documents
Existing Data
Purchase satellite images/ aerial
photography already processed
Find public domain sources of images. Or
share costs with data partners.
Purchase or download data and process inhouse.
Existing Data
We may purchase or share an attribute data
base (Excel spreadsheet, or Access
database).
Must have a spatial component.
Sometimes we must clean the data.
Data Collection
Compile data directly from air-photos.
Digitize from existing paper maps
Scan from existing maps
Field data collection. Hand-held, mobile
and airborne GPS (Global Positioning
Systems).
Creating your own
data
Most GIS users still must create their own data or need to update it
Manual Digitizing
Raster Scanning
Pre-processing and Conversion:
usually required!
Maps and Drawings
digitizing, or
scanning
GIS Data Bases
Aerial Photographs
photogrametry/photo interpretation to extract
features
digitizing or scanning to convert to digital
Satellite Imagery/ Digital
Orthophotography
rectification and DEM (digital elevation
model)
CAD Data Bases
translator software (pre-existing or customwritten) needed to convert to required GIS
format
conversion between proprietary
standards (ARC/INFO, Intergraph,
GDS, etc.)
Spatial Data Transfer Standard
Attribute Databases
geocoding if micro data
conversion between geographic units
Records and Documents
OCR (optical character recognition)
scanning
keyboarding
then, same as attribute data bases
Representation of space elements...
A1
S1
P1
A3
S2
P3
A4
P4
A8
Human
Perceptio
n
P2
A2
S3
P5
A6
A5 S4
P7
P8 P9
A11
P11
A12
Arc-ID Nud_DNud_F
1
1
1
2
3
4
...
3
5
3
4
P6
A7
P10
Computer
Perception
S6
S5
P12
A13
Arc-ID
(X,Y)
1
2
3
4
...
(a,b) , ... , (a,b)
(c,d) , ... , (e,f)
(g,h), ... , (g,h)
(e,f) , ... , (g,h)
Spatial
DataBase
In order to solve the drawback of layer-based approach in spatial data
representation of GIS, this paper has proposed a new scale-based approach for it.
The map in scale-based approach is organized in a series of scale-view that
CONCLUSION
includes a series of block and spatial objects depending on the corresponding
resolutions (scales). At the same time the map indexing structures are created,
which include indexing structure of blocks and "block link tree" of map that are
extension of R*-Tree. Finally, the prototype GIS are built to evaluate the scalebased approach.
Digital representation of spatial object is not limit to one approach or one
structure. Geographic information is always so complex that a higher-order
abstraction is required for modeling the reality. The scale-based approach just
provides a means for representing the products of geographic abstraction.
Henceforth he congregation of layer-based approach and scale-based approach
may be a direction of research about the representation of geographic
information.
