Buffering in Geographic Information Systems draft version1 Nagapramod Mandagere Buffering in general refers the creation of a zone of a specified

d width around a point or a line or a polygon area. If is also referred to as a zone of specified distance around coverage features. In general there are two types of buffers, namely constant width buffers and variable width buffers. Both types can be generated for a set of coverage features based on each features attribute values. These zones or buffers can be used in queries to determine which entities occur either within or outside the defined buffer zone. Analogous to buffering in raster I! is distance analysis. Buffering point data is the simplest form of buffering which involves creation of a circular polygon about each point of radius equal to the buffer distance. In this scheme the buffer distance or the radius of the circle could be fi"ed for all points in a layer or the user could specify it. If multiple points in the same layer are being buffered, then the buffering algorithms chec# for overlaps in each point$s buffer and remove the overlapping sections. This process of removal of overlapping sections involves the use of intersection and dissolves. Buffering of lines is a little more involved than buffering point data. This is complicated even more due to the fact that lines can be made up of multiple segments. %ine segments are handled independently of each other. &or each line segment, d" and dy between the end points are computed. 'sing these, two new parallel buffer lines are identified. (nce these parallel buffer lines have been identified for the ne"t segment, the line intersections of the parallel buffer lines of each segment are calculated and new coordinates are assigned to the common vertices. After that the simplest line intersection test can be used. %astly, the ends of the buffer are defined at the lines start and end points. (nce the polygon is generated, again the overlapping sections must be removed using intersection and dissolve. Buffering of polygonal surfaces uses most of the same concepts used for line buffering. The only significant change is that the polygon buffer is created on only one side of the line that defines the polygon. )ost I! software ma#e use of outside polygon which surrounds the area under consideration, but some ma#e use of an inner polygon that lies inside the area under consideration. !ources* +,- Tutorials on Topics in I!* http*..www.sli.unimelb.edu.au.gisweb.Buffers)odule.Buff!elect.htm +/- lossary and definition of #ey terms in I!* http*..en.mimi.hu.gis.buffer.html