The A.P.I.C.

Series
Number 37

Fundamentals of
Spatial Information
Systems
Robert Laurini
Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France
and
Derek Thompson
University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, USA

ACADEMIC PRESS
Harcourt Brace & Company, Publishers
London
San Diego
New York
Boston
Sydney
Tokyo
Toronto

Contents

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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PART ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE SPATIAL CONTEXT

Chapter 1
1.1
1.2

1.3

1.4
1.5

Chapter 2

Geomatics: Introduction to spatial information systems

Spatial data organization

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Heterogeneity of uses of spatial information systems
1.2.1 Uses of spatial information systems
1.2.2 Examples of data requirements
Some components of spatial information systems
1.3.1 The toolbox view
1.3.2 The physical components
The role of automation: geomatics
Bibliography

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Needs: Purposes and types of spatial problem

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2.1 Problems to be solved; tasks to be performed

2.2 Location and character
2.3 Measurements and spatial relationships
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2.3.1 Spatial properties
2.3.2 Spatial relationships
2.4 Categories of spatial problems
2.4.1 Types of spatial problem
2.4.2 Other aspects
2.5 Some examples of multi-faceted needs
2.5.1 Example of flows over landscapes
2.5.2 Resources inventory
2.5.3 Predicting the location of mineral ore deposits
2.5.4 Engineering network simulation
2.6 Main categories of tools in a spatial information system
2.7 Some implications for the design of spatial information systems
2.8 Bibliography

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Chapter 3
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Semantics: Objects, surfaces, data

3.1 The information in a spatial information system

3.1.1 Spatial entities
3.1.2 Categories of information
3.1.3 Metainformation
3.2 Non-spatial attributes
3.3 Spatial characteristics of entities
3.3.1 Dimensionality of entities
3.3.2 Geometric elements
3.4 Combinations of entity types
3.4.1 Combinations of spatial units
3.4.2 Substitutions of spatial units
3.4.3 Mixed uses
3.5 Continuous variation over and in space
3.5.1 A field view of spatial variations
3.5.2 Isotropicity
3.5.3 Discrete and continuous views
3.6 Spatial and non-spatial properties together
3.7 An introduction to the mechanics of spatial data organization
3.7.1 Tables and matrices
3.7.2 Maps
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3.7.3 Data models
3.8 Personal spatial semantics
3.9 Some other aspects of spatial information
3.9.1 Data quality
3.9.2 The time element
3.9.3 Intensional and extensional data
3.9.4 General discussion
3.10 Bibliography '

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PART TWO GEOMETRIES FOR SPATIAL DATA

Chapter 4
4.1
4.2

Geometries: Position, representation, dimensions

Different geometries
Positioning objects in spatial referencing systems
4.2.1 Continuous space referencing
4.2.2 Referencing for discrete entities
4.3 Global reference systems
4.3.1 Global referencing
4.3.2 Map projections
4.3.3 Some examples of global systems
4.4 The fundamental element of distance
4.5 Coordinates and splines: the representation of lines
4.5.1 Line simplification

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4.6

4.7

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4.9

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4.5.2 Smoothed lines
4.5.3 Some realities of line and polygon representation
/4.5.4 Intensional and extensional representation of objects
Fractals: a way to represent natural objects
4.6.1 Creation of fractal objects
4.6.2 Stochastic fractals
Space-filling curves and dimensionality
4.7.1 Paths through space
4.7.2 Space-fillingxurves
4.7.3 Dimensionality
Summary
Bibliography

Chapter 5
5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5
5.6
5.7

Chapter 6
6.1

Topology: Graphs, areas, ordering

Networks and graphs
5.1.1 Graphs
5.1.2 Properties of graphs
Graphs and areas
5.2.1 Digital line graphs
5.2.2 Topological consistency
Error identification
5.3.1 Possible conditions in digital maps
5.3.2 Some procedures for checking for errors
Polygons and areas
5.4.1 Types of areal spatial unit
5.4.2 Containment and coincidence
Data for spatial relationships
Some other considerations and summary
Bibliography

Tessellations: Regular and irregular cells, hierarchies

Mosaics, tessellations and lattices

6.1.1 Tessellations
6.1.2 Lattices
6.1.3 Scale and resolution
6.2 The geometry of regular tessellations
6.3 Fixed spatial resolutions: regular cell grids
6.3.1 Data encoding
6.3.2 Spatial properties
6.3.3 Surface modelling from lattices
6.3.4 Structures for grid-cell data
6.4 Variable spatial resolution: quadtrees
6.5 Hierarchical tessellations for a sphere

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6.6 Irregular tessellations based on triangles

6.6.1 Proximal regions
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6.(s.2 Triangulation
6.7 Implications for spatial information systems
6.8 Bibliography
Chapter 7 Manipulations: Interpolations, geometric operations,
transformations
7.1 Interpolation and extrapolation
7.1.1 The interpolation and extrapolation concept
7.1.2 Some practicalities
7.2 Basic operations on lines and points
7.2.1 Line intersections
7.2.2 Segment intersections
7.2.3 Point-in-polygon procedure
7.2.4 Centroid definition
7.2.5 Some spatial statistics based on point data
7.3 Some operations for polygons
7.3.1 Intersection of lines with polygons
7.3.2 Union and intersection of polygons
7.3.3 Area computation
7.3.4 Areal interpolation
7.3.5 Shape measures for polygons
7.3.6 Polygon clipping
7.3.7 Buffer zones
7.3.8 Polygon overlay process
7.4 Spatial data transformations
7.4.1 Changes in dimensionality
7.4.2 Changes in position
7.4.3 Conflation
7.4.4 Changes in topology
7.5 Transformations between regular cells and entities
7.5.1 Change to regular cells
7.5.2 Change from regular cells to vectors
7.6 Access to spatial data
7.6.1 Access by identifiers and by locators
7.6.2 Rectangles and strip trees
7.6.3 Sheets and tiles
7.6.4 Different forms of spatialaddress
7.7 Summary
7.8 Bibliography

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Chapter 8

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Spatial analysis: Attribute data, modelling, integration

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8.1 . Integrating the attribute data

8.2 Some operations for planar network entities
8.3 Some operation's for grid-cell based map overlay modelling
8.3.1 Basic operations for grid-cell data
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8.3.2 Spatial modelling with grid-cell data
8.4 Operations for quadtree tessellations
8.5 Operations for irregular polygons and for graphs
8.5.1 Creating regions
8.5.2 Location problem solving

8.5.3 Map overlay modelling and analysis

8.6 Integration and multiple representation
8.6.1 Multiple representation
8.6.2 Integration
8.6.3 Some examples of public and commercial spatial data
organization
8.7 Summary and conclusions
8.8 Bibliography

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PART THREE CONCEPTUAL MODELLING FOR SPATIAL DATA

Chapter 9

9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
9.6
9.7

9.8
9.9
9.10

Design for Information Systems: Methodologies, issues

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Database management systems

The ANSI-SPARC design methodology
Conceptual modelling: the entity-relationship approach
Logical modelling: relational databases
Transforming entity-relationship models into relational models
Logical modelling: CODASYL databases
9.6.1 The modelling
9.6.2 The data definition and manipulation languages
Some issues in entity-relationship and logical modelling
9.7.1 Implied relationships
9.7.2 Person-made and natural rules
9.7.3 Table organization
The process for the design of spatial information systems
9.8.1 The information discovery
9.8.2 Information system design
Summary
Bibliography

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Contents

Chapter 10 Spaghetti: Conceptual modelling of line-oriented

objects

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10.1 Representation of segments, polylines and mixtilines

10.1.1 Segments
10.1.2 Polylines
10.1.3 Representation of a mixtiline
10.2 One-dimensional representation of polygons and areas
10.2.1 Isolated polygons
10.2.2 Sets of polygons
10.3 Modelling for graphs
10.4 Conceptual modelling of terrains
10.4.1 Gradients, grids and contours
10.4.2 Triangulated irregular networks
10.5 Representation of polyhedra
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10.5.1 Simple polyhedra
10.5.2 Complex polyhedra
10.6 Some examples of vector oriented geomatic models
10.7 Summary
10.8 Bibliography

Chapter 11

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Pizza: Conceptual modelling for areas and volumes

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11.1 Regular cell grid representation

11.2 Quadtrees
11.2.1 Review of the concept of quadtrees
11.2.2 Modelling polygons and terrains by quadtrees
11.2.3 Extended quadtrees
11.3 Pyramid models
11.4 Modelling via octtrees
11.4.1 Hierarchical and linear octtrees
11.4.2 Extended octtrees
11.5 Example: modelling of geological objects
11.6 Summary
11.7 Bibliography

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Chapter 12 Spatial Object Modelling: Views, integration,

complexities
12.1 Selection criteria for a good representation
12.2 External models: synthesis with different representations
12.2.1 Standardization of geometric representation
12.2.2 Coexistence of several geometric representations
12.2.3 An additional step in conceptual modelling
12.3 Working with complex features

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12.4 Semantic data models

12.5 Models used in some spatial information systems and databases
i 12.5.1 Commercial spatial information systems software examples
12.5.2 National cartographic databases
12.6 Issues in representations and conceptual modelling
12.6.1 Metadata
12.6.2 Database concepts and practical matters
12.7 Bibliography
PART FOUR

SPATIAL DATA RETRIEVAL AND REASONING

Chapter 13

Algebras: Relational and Peano tuple

13.1 Features of relations

13.1.1 Some properties of tuples
13.1.2 The Cartesian product for relations
13.2 Relational operators and relational algebra
13.2.1 Intersection
13.2.2 Union
13.2.3 Difference
13.2.4 Join
13.2.5 Relational projection
13.2.6 Restriction
13.2.7 Division
13.3 Normalization
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13.3.1 Necessity for normalization
13.3.2 Functional dependencies
13.3.3 First normal form
13.3.4 Second normal form
13.3.5 Third normal form
13.3.6 Other normal forms and implications for spatial data
13.4 Structured Query Language examples in geomatics
13.5 Peano relations
13.5.1 Peano relations concept
13.5.2 Definition of a Peano relation
13.6 Conformance levels and extensions
13.6*.l First conformance level: well-positioned object
13.6.2 Second conformance level: removal of overlaps
13.6.3 Third conformance level: compact objects
13.6.4 Extension beyond two dimensions
13.6.5 Hilbert keys
13.7 The Peano-tuple algebra
13.7.1 Boolean operators
13.7.2 Geometric operators

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13.7.3 Relational operators

13.7.4 Examples of Peano-tuple algebra queries
13.8 Summary
13.9 Bibliography

Chapter 14
14.1
14.2
14.3
14.4
14.5
14.6
14.7
14.8
14.9

Spatial Queries: Types, algorithms

The process for spatial queries

Point-in-polygon queries
Region queries
Vacant place queries
Distance and buffer zone queries
Path queries
Examples of multimedia queries
Implications for spatial information systems
Bibliography
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Chapter 15

Access and Quality: Spatial indices and integrity

constraints

15.1 Indexing
15.1.1 Indexing in file management systems
15.1.2 Indexing in relational databases
15.2 Spatial indexing
15.2.1 Indexing by space-filling curves
15.2.2 Indexing by quadtrees
15.2.3 Indexing by R- and R + -trees
15.2.4 Indexing by other kinds of trees
15.2.5 Some practical aspects of spatial indexing
15.3 Integrity constraints
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15.3.1 Basic integrity constraints
15.3.2 Spatial data checking
15.3.3 Example of a cadastre
15.4 The use of topology in creating integrity checking mechanisms
15.4.1 The topology of tessellations
15.4.2 The topology of networks
15.4.3 The topology of digital terrain models
15.5 An example of consistency checking for a terrain model
15.5.1 Triangulated irregular network representation
15.5.2 Regular cell representation
15.6 Conclusions about spatial indexing and integrity
15.7 Bibliography

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Contents

Chapter 16

Hypermedia: Multimedia spatial information

systems and hypermaps

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16.1 Hyperdocuments
16.1.1 Multimedia spatialdata
16.1.2 The hypermap concept
16.2 Multimedia image data ,
16.2.1 Image modelling
16.2.2 Physical encoding
16.2.3 Dynamic image models
16.2.4 Picture object modelling for retrieval
16.3 Organization of collections of maps and images
16.4 Hypermaps
16.4.1 Spatial referencing of hyperdocuments
16.4.2 Spatial queries for retrieving hypermap nodes
16.4.3 Encoding hypermap spatial references by Peano relations
16.4.4 R-trees and map pyramids
16.4.5 Navigation in hypermaps
16.5 Summary
16.6 Bibliography

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Chapter 17

Spatial Knowledge: Intelligent spatial information

systems
17.1 Towards intelligent spatial information systems
17.2 From record-oriented to object-oriented databases
17.2.1 Rationale and objectives
17.2.2 Classes, subclasses and instances
17.2.3 Attributes and data types
17.2.4 Inheritance
17.2.5 Links between classes and instances
17.2.6 Methods
17.3 Utilization for geomatics
17.4 Object-oriented databases and spatial information systems
17.5 Artificial intelligence and expert systems
17.5.1 Facts and rules
17.5.2 General structure of an expert system
17.5.3 Inference engine
17.5.4 Metarules
17.6 Spatial knowledge representation
17.6.1 Spatial facts
17.6.2 Spatial relations
17.6.3 Spatial metarules
17.6.4 Fuzzy spatial knowledge
17.6.5 Spatial knowledge from logical deduction
17.6.6 Spatial knowledge derived from numerical formulae

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17.6.7 Examples of spatial process representation

17.6.8 Visual knowledge encoding
17.6.9 Examples in spatial knowledge engineering
17.7 Spatial reasoning in spatial information systems
17.7.1 Learning possibilities
17.7.2 Logico-deductive and spatial reasoning
17.7.3 Example of districting
17.8 Summary
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17.9 Bibliography

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AFTERWORD
INDEX

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