Faculty of Applied Engineering and
Urban Planning
Civil Engineering Department
Geographic Information Systems
Vector and Raster
Data Models
Lecture 3
Week 4
1st Semester 2012/2013
Spatial Data Models
Raster
exhaustive regular or irregular partitioning of space
associated with the field view
location-based
Vector
points, lines, polygons
associated with the object view
object-based
Spatial Data Models
Spaghetti Vector Data Model
Each point, line, or polygon is stored as a record in a
file that consists of that entity’s ID and a list of
coordinates that define geometry.
For Points:
ID Coordinates
1 3,4
2 2 5,5
1
Spaghetti Vector Data Model
Each point, line, or polygon is stored as a record in a
file that consists of that entity’s ID and a list of
coordinates that define geometry.
For Lines:
ID Coordinates
1 (0,1), (3,4), (5,6)
2 (3,1), (5,2), (4,3)
2
Spaghetti Vector Data Model
Each point, line, or polygon is stored as a record in a
file that consists of that entity’s ID and a list of
coordinates that define geometry.
For Polygons:
ID Coordinates
1 (2,4), (4,3), (3,6) , (2,4),
2 (3,1), (5,2), (4,3), (3,2), (3,1)
2
Spaghetti Vector Data Model
Advantages
simple
efficient for display and plotting
Disadvantages
inefficient for most types of spatial analysis
Vector Topologic Data Model
Composed of points, lines, and polygons
Node: a point at the intersection of three or more
lines
In addition to coordinate locations, the topologic
relationships among geometric features are explicitly
recorded
Vector Topologic Data Model
Arc Coordinate Data
A Arc StartXY IntermediateXY EndXY
n1
B a2 a1 a1 4,5 (4,8), (8,8), (8,1), (4,1) 4,3
a3
C a4 a2 4,5 (6,7), (6,3) 4,3
n2 a3 4,5 (1,3) 4,3
a4 4,3 4,5
Arc Topology Node Topology Polygon
Topology
Arc Start End Left Right Node Arcs
ID Arcs
a1 n1 n2 A n1 a4, a2, a1, a3
A a1, a2
a2 n1 n2 A B n2 a2, a4, a3, a1
B a2, a4
a3 n1 n2 C
C a3, a4
a4 n2 n1 C B
Vector Topologic Data Model
Planar Enforcement:
No two individual features can overlap.
There are no ‘holes’ or ‘íslands’ that are not
themselves features.
Every feature is represented as a record in the
attribute table.
Vector Topologic vs. Spaghetti
Spaghetti: can encode as
2 or 3 polygons (and have 2
or 3 records in the attribute
table)
Topologic: must be
encoded as 3 polygons
(and have 3 records in the
attribute table)
Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)
(TIN) is a digital data structure used in a
geographic information system (GIS) for
the representation of a surface. A TIN is
a vector-based representation of the
physical land surface or sea bottom,
made up of irregularly distributed nodes
and lines with three-dimensional
coordinates (x, y, and z) that are
arranged in a network of
nonoverlapping triangles.
Triangulated
Irregular Network
(TIN)
Hybrid vs. Integrated Approaches
Hybrid Approach: stores spatial data and attribute
data in different data models (typically relational data
model for attribute data and proprietary data
structure for spatial data).
Integrated Approach: stores spatial and attribute
data using the same data model (typically using the
relational data model in a single RDBMS).
ESRI Shapefile
Designed by ESRI for ArcView
Implementation of the spaghetti vector model
An individual layer stores a single type of geometry (i.e.
point, line, polygon)
No topology (but it can be calculated on the fly...)
Draws relatively fast
‘Open’ file format
ESRI Shapefile
Three primary files in a shapefile: .shp, .shx, and .dbf
All files must share the same prefix for one shapefile,
e.g. road.shp, road.shx, and road.dbf
.shp : stores the feature geometry (binary)
.shx : index for .shp file
.dbf : attribute data stored in dBASE format
ESRI Shapefile
ESRI Geodatabase
Designed by ESRI for ArcGIS
Integrated approach implementing spaghetti vector data
model in a relational DBMS (for vector)
RDBMS is powered by Microsoft Jet (Access) or other
DBMS
Topology is generated on the fly
Supports versioning, multi-user edits, client-server
architecture, other mainstream database functionality
ESRI Coverage
Designed by ESRI for ArcInfo
Implementation of the vector topologic data model
‘Closed’ file format
Each coverage is a directory, with numerous files that
store feature geometry, projection, registration, etc.
Attribute data is stored in a separate INFO directory,
which stores all attribute data for all coverages in its
parent directory.
Raster Data Model
• A raster
representation is
composed a series
of layers, each
with a theme
• Typically used to
represent ‘field-
like’ geographic
phenomena
Regular Tessellations
Squares Triangles Hexagons
Irregular Tessellations
Raster Grid
– but most common raster is composed of
squares, called grid cells
– grid cells are analogous to pixels in remote
sensing images and computer graphics
Raster Resolution
The distance that one side of a grid cell represents on
the ground
1 1 1 2 3 = grid cell resolution
1 1 1 2 3
2 2 2 2 2
The higher the resolution
4 4 4 2 3 (smaller the grid cell), the
4 4 4 2 3 higher the precision, but the
greater the cost in data
storage
Raster Data: Encoding
Raster Data: Encoding
Raster and RDBMS
Raster layer can be attached to a RDBMS
ID Land Use
1 1 1 2 3 1 Agricultural
1 1 1 2 3 2 Road
2 2 2 2 2
3 Residential
4 4 4 2 3
4 Industrial
4 4 4 2 3
Raster
Data:
ArcGIS
Raster
Data:
ArcGIS
Raster in ArcGIS – Floating Point
Raster in ArcGIS - Integer
