Nature of Geographic Data
GIS deals with geographic data
Geographic data can be defined as a class of
spatial data in which the frame is the surface
and/or near-surface of the Earth.
Geographic data are a significant subset of spatial
data spatial data (i.e. refers to features or
phenomena distributed in three-dimensional space)
Although the terms geographic, spatial, and
geospatial are often used interchangeably
Nature of Geographic Data
There are major two types of geographic data;
1. Graphic data (spatial)
2. Non-graphic data (non-spatial/attributes)
Nature of Geographic Data
Graphic data are used to describe the spatial
location and mutual relationships of the
geoelements (topological and geometrical)
Topological data describe the mutual
relationships of geoelements and their parts
Geometrical data express quantitative nature
and they are used to express the position of
geoelements by using a coordinate system
Nature of Geographic Data
For the purposes of geometric modeling of spatial
objects in GIS objects we will consider the following
dimensions;
A point is a zero dimensional object that specifies a
geometric location through a set of co-ordinates
A node is a special type of point, a zero dimensional
object that is a topological junction or end point and
may specify a geometric location
A pixel (picture element) is a two-dimensional entity
that is a smallest indivisible element of an image
Nature of Geographic Data
A line is a one-dimensional object. A line segment is a
direct line between two points.
A polygon is a continuous two dimensional object
bounded by line segments.
Symbols are graphic elements that reprint features at
points on map.
Nature of Geographic Data
Non-graphical data (Attributes) are the descriptive
information about a map or graphic feature
Attribute refers to this descriptive property and may:
vary slowly or rapidly
be physical/environmental or social/economic
identify a place or entity
provide a measurement of something at that
place
Representing Geography
THREE levels of the abstraction of reality:
Real world - phenomena and objects, that are present in
their real form in the landscape
Data model - includes only those features of the real
world, which are necessary for solving the task in
particular application
Data structure - represents the data model in the
database in the way that the suggested dataset is
stored in computer systems
Representing Geography
Nature of Geographic Data
There are two ways of graphic/spatial data
representation techniques: vector and raster.
Nature of Geographic Data
1. Vector Data Structure (Model)
The element of the database that constitutes the points, lines,
polygons, nodes, vertex and arc is a vector representation.
With vector representation, the boundaries are defined by a
series of points that when joined with straight lines form
the graphic representation of that feature
The points themselves are encoded with a pair of numbers
giving the X and Y coordinates
The attributes of features are stored in the database
management (DBMS) software program
Nature of Geographic Data
2. Raster Data Structure (Model)
The raster system do not defines feature rather the area is
subdivided into a fine mesh of grid cells.
The cells record the condition or attribute of the earth's surface
at that point.
Each cell is given a numeric value which may then represent a
feature identifier, a qualitative or a quantitative attribute
value
Raster systems are typically data intensive since they must
record data at every point.
Nature of Geographic Data
Raster systems have substantially more analytical power
than their vector counterparts in the analysis
Raster is suited to the study of data that are
continuously changing over space such as terrain,
vegetation biomass, rainfall and the like
Vector and Raster
Vectors systems are quite efficient in their storage
of map data
Vectors can produce simple thematic maps of
database queries
Vector systems do not have extensive range of
capabilities for analyses over continuous space
Raster and vector systems each have their special
strengths and weakness the current GIS systems
tend to combine both
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