Geographic Information

and
Spatial Data Types
 Representation
of geographic phenomena

Geographic Computer
phenomena Visualizations
Representation

real Application simulation world

world computing
Geographic Phenomena
Natural phenomena
(landscape, weather, natural processes, )
Man-made phenomena
(roads, buildings, )
Natural Phenomena
Man-made Phenomena
Geographic Phenomena
What?
Can be named and described
Can be georeferenced
A coordinate system with well-
defined origin and orientation of the
Where? three orthogonal, coordinate axes
spatial reference system

Can be assigned a time or interval

When?
Type of
Geographic Phenomena
Field : a value can be determined for
every point in the study area
Continues fields: temperature, soil pH value
Discrete field: soil and land use classification
Objects : are well-distinguishable,
discrete, bounded entities. The space
between them is empty
Examples: buildings, parcel,
Geographic fields
Continuous fields:
Changes in field value are gradual
The changes of field values can be measured using
method differentiable: the changes per unit
distance

A continuous field elevation

Differentiable height change

per kilometre
Geographic fields
Non-continuous fileds:
Changes in field values are sudden
Discrete fields divide area into parts. Each part has
the same field value, but every point has a field
value.
Examples: land classifications
Kinds of data values
Nominal data values: provide name or
identifier. Also called categorical data.
Ordinal data values: in some sequence.
For example: low, middle, high.
Interval data values (ratio data values):
allows computation.
Interval: no zero value, no support of * and /
temperature data
Ratio: continuous fields have ratio data:
elevation data
Geographic objects
Location: where is it?
Shape: what form is it?
Dimension: zero, one, two, three
Size: how big it is?
Orientation: in which direction is it facing?

Collection of geographic objects:

at the aggregated level and study the
distribution pattern of the geographic objects
Computer representation of
geographic information

Maps Databases

10100100111
Computer representation of
geographic information

Difficulties:
The nature of the geographic objects
The limitation of measurement
The limitation of computers
Computer representation of
geographic information

Regular tessellation:
Partition the space into regular cells, also
called grid or raster.
Computer representation of
geographic information

Regular tessellation:
Divided into n rows and m columns
Each cell has the value corresponds to a geographic
feature
Easy for georeferencing
Smaller cells have high resolution and bigger cells
have low resolution
Computer representation of
geographic information

Irregular tessellation:
Partition the space into disjoint cells but the
cells may vary in size and shape
Region quadtree:
Based on a regular tessellation of square cells
Divides the space repetitively into four quadrants until all
the cells within a quadrant have the same value
But neighbour cells with the same value are grouped into
one
Computer representation of
geographic information

Irregular tesselation:
Computer representation of
geographic information

Vector representation:
Triangulated Irregular Networks (TIN)
Points
Lines
polygons
Computer representation of
geographic information
TIN:
Commonly used for digital terrain model, but
also to represent any continuous field
It is built based on a set of a point locations
with measurements
Each point has a x,y pair and a third value, for
example, elevation
Also called triangular tessellation
Computer representation of
geographic information

TIN:
Computer representation of
geographic information
TIN:
Each triangle is called a plane
Each plane has a fixed aspect and gradient
Delaunay triangulation
An optimal triangulation
The triangles are as equilateral as possible
For each triangle, the circumcircle through its three anchor
points does not contain any other anchor point
Computer representation of
geographic information
POINTS:
Each point has a x,y pair of coordinates in
2D or x,y,z in 3D
Represent geographic features without
concern of their size and shape
Examples: a well location, a city in a small
scale map, a tree
Computer representation of
geographic information
LINES:
Represent one dimensional features: roads,
rivers, power lines, etc.
A line is defined by two end nodes and zero or
more internal nodes

start node end node

internal nodes
Computer representation of
geographic information
LINES - synonyms:
Line: arc, edge, polyline
Internal nodes vertex (vertices)
End node: from-node, to-node

from-node to-node
Computer representation of
geographic information
LINES:
Line segment: a straight line between two
consecutive vertices within a line

line segment

end node end node

internal nodes
Computer representation of
geographic information

AREAS:
Represent area features
Defined by boundaries
The boundary is composed of a
cyclic sequence of lines
Shared boundaries between
polygons
Computer representation of
geographic information

AREAS:
Boundary model
Stores polygon boundaries as non-looping arcs
Indicates the left and right polygons of an arc
Also called topological data model. Shared
boundaries between polygons
Layers in an Object-based
Model
Topology

Topology is a branch of mathematics that

deals with properties of space that remain
invariant under certain transformations.
Topological Mapping
The neighbourhood relationship remains
The boundary lines have the same start and
end points
The areas are bounded by the same boundary
lines, only the shapes and lengths have
changed
Simplexes and Simplicial
Complex
0-simplex

1-simplex

2-simplex

3-simplex

Simplicial complex
Topological Invariants

Exterior Boundary
interior
Topological Relationships

Relationships between two regions can

be determined based on the intersection
of their boundaries and interiors
(4-intersection)

A B
Topological Consistency
Relations
Every 1-simplex is bounded by two 0-simplices.
Every 1-cell borders two 2-simplices (left and right polygon).
Every 2-simplex has closed boundary consisting of a cyclic
sequence of 0- and 1-simplices.
Around every 0-simplex exists an cyclic sequence of 1- and 2-
simplics.
1-simplices only intersect at their node
Spatial Relationships
 Representation of
geographic fields
tessellation:

vector:
Representation of
geographic fields
Tessellation - area
Representation of
geographic fields
Tessellation line and point objects:
Organizing spatial data
Spatial data layer
Each layer usually
represents single
geographic phenomena
Overlay operations to
study the spatial
correlation