GEOGRAPHIC DATABASE DESIGN

1. A Model the users view. This involves tasks such as identifying functions (eg: controlling forestry resources), determining the data required to support these functions and organizing the data into groups to facilitate data management. 2. Define objects and their relationship. Once the functions of an organization have been defined, the object types and functions can be specified. The relationship between object types must also be described. This process usually benefits from the rigor of using object models and diagrams to describe a set of object classes and the relationship between them.

3. Select geographic representation Choosing the types of geographic representation will have profound implications for the way a database is used, and so it is a critical database design task.

4. Match to geographic database types This stage involves matching the object types to be studied to specific types supported by GIS that will be used to create and maintain the database.

5. Organize geographic database structure This stage includes tasks such as defining topological associations, specifying rules and relationships, and assigning coordinate systems. 6. Define database schema. The final stage is definition of the actual physical database schema that will hold the database data values.