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.