Geographic Information & Spatial Data Types ...

II.
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION & SPATIAL DATA TYPES
Contents
 Geographic phenomena
 Definition of geographic phenomena
 Diffeerent types of geographic phenomena
 Computer representation of geographic information
Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 1

Models and representation of the real world
 In practical terms, this refers to the process of representing key aspects of the real world
digitally (inside computer).
 Definition: Modeling is the process of producing an abstraction (representation) of the

‘real world’ so that some part of it can be more easily handled.
 These representations are made up of spatial data stored in memory of computer in the form
of bits and bytes.
 This digital representation can then be subjected to various analytical functions
(computations) in the GIS, & the output can be visualized in various ways.
 Models can never capture the complexity of real world phenomena

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

Models and representation of the real world cont’d
 Models can be static or dynamic:

 Maps and stored database are examples of static model
 Dynamic or process models address changes
 Any phenomenon can be represented in various ways and its representation depends on:
 What original, raw data (from sensors or otherwise) is available and
 What sort of data manipulation is required or will be undertaken
Fig. Representation of real world phenomena inside a GIS to

build models, after (Huisman, O; de By, R; & Klee, P, 2009)

1. Geographic phenomena
 A phenomenon is a fact, occurrence, or circumstance observed or observable within nature [1].
Therefore, a geographic phenomenon is a phenomenon that requires two descriptors: "what is
present, and where it is." Source: 7.1. from IoT folder)
 A GIS operates under the assumption that the relevant spatial phenomena occur in a two- or
three-dimensional Euclidean space, unless otherwise specified.
 Euclidean space can be defined as a model of space in which locations are represented by
coordinates (x, y) in 2D; (x, y, z) in 3D and distnce and direction can be defined with geometric
formulas.
 In the 2D case, this is known as the Euclidean plane, which is the most common Euclidean
space in GIS use.
4
Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016
Euclidean Space
 Euclidean space is actually a flat and non-curvy space. In modern times, it referred as Cartesian
space or Cartesian plane.
 In Euclidean geometry, the surface is always assumed to be flat. If it become curved or spherical,
then it comes under non-Euclidean geometry.
 An example of two-dimensional Euclidean space is a piece of paper.
 2D does have two dimensions: length and breadth along a pair of horizontal and vertical lines (a)
 In three-dimensional Euclidean space, there is one additional dimension known as height
perpendicular to both length and breadth (b)
 This serves as a three-parameter model
(a) (b) of the physical universe (that is, the
spatial part, without considering time) in
which all known matter exists.
Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 Source: 1.1.8 from IoT folder 5
1.1. Geographic phenomena cont’d
 In order to be ablle to present relevant aspects of real world phenomena inside a GIS, we
have to define what is that phenomena we are referring to.
 Definition: Geographic phenomenon is a manifestation of an entity or process that:
 Can be named or described
 Can be georeferenced (It has a position in space)
 Can be assigned a time (interval) at which it is/was present (Present during a certain time
or time interval)
 Remember the El Nino: Sea Surface temperature, Wind Speed and location of buoys
 Example: Name=El Nino, Location of buoys =can be georeferenced, & SST & WS= It existed/s
at given at a given time/time interval (hour, day, month), and
 Relevant spatial phenomena exist in two or three-dimension Euclidean space

1.1. Types of geographic phenomena
 The relevant phenomena for a given application depends on one’s objectives.
 For instance, in water management, the objects of study moght be river basins, ground water
levels, irrigation levels, etc.
 Note that all of these can be named or described, georeferenced and provide with a time
interval at which it exists.
 For instance, in cadastral administration, the objects of study are different: Land parcels,
houses, etc. Again, these can be named or described, georeferenced and assigned a time
interval of existence.
 Not all relevant phenomena come as triples (description georeference, time-interval), though
many do.
 If the georeference is missing, we seem to have sthg. Of interest i. e. not positioned in space.
 An example is a legal document in a cadastral system. It’s somewhere, but its position in space
is not considered relevant. Source: Principles of GIS
7
1.1. Types of geographic phenomena cont’d
 If the time interval is missing, we might have a phenomenon of interest i. e. considered to be

always there, i. e. the time interval is (likely to be considered) infinite.
 If the description is missing, then we have something that exists in space and time, yet cannot
be described. Obviously, this last issue very much limits the usefulness of the information.
 To understand the definition of geographic phenomena, let us make two further observations:
 Observation 1: In order to represent a phenomena in a GIS, a GIS requires us to state
what it is, and where it is. We must provide a description-or at least a
name-on the one hand, and a georeferenced on the other hand.
 We will skip temporal issue now, because GIS donot provide much automatic
support for time-dependent data.

 Observation 2: Some phenomena manifest themselves essentially everywhere in the study

area, while others only occur in certain localities. If we define our study area
as the equatorial Pacific Ocean, we can say that SST can be measured
anywhere in the study area. Therefore, it is a typical example of a
(geographic) field.
 Geographic phenomena can be divided into:

 Geographic fields
 Continuous
 Discrete
 Geographic objects

Data types and data values
 Since we have now differetiated between continuous & discrete fields, we may also look at different
kinds of data values which we can use to represent our ‘phenomena’.
 There exist different types of values that we can use to represent “phenomena”
 Four different data values:
 Nominal data values
 Ordinal data values
 Interval data values
 Ratio data values
 Normal/categorical data values, are values that provide a name or identifier (names of geological
units) so that we can discriminate b/n different values. No computation with these values. An
example are: names such as ‘valley’, deciduous forest’, ‘Paris’, etc.
 It is categorical when the values assigned are sorted according to some set of non-overlapping categories.
Ex. Identifying the soil type of a given area to belong to a certain pre-defined category.
Data types and data values
 Ordinal data values, are data values that can be put in a natural sequence but do not allow any
other type of computation (low, medium, high). An example: Household income could be classified
as being either ‘low’, ‘average’/’medium’, or ‘high’.
 Interval data values, are quantitative, in that they allow simple forms of computation like addition
and subtraction. However, interval data has no arithmetic zero value, and does not support
multiplication or division. For example: a temperature of 20oC is not twice as warm as 10oC, and
thus centigrade temperatures are interval data values, not ratio data values.
 Ratio data values, allow most, if not all, forms of arithmetic computation and have a natural zero
point. An example: Distances measured in meters and weight.
value (distance)
 Continuous fields can be expected to have ratio data values
 Discrete fields can have nominal or ordinal data values
 Interval and ratio data is also referred to as “quantitative” Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS
 Definition: A (geographic) field is a geographic phenomenon for which, for every point in
the study area, a value can be determined.
 Some common examples: Temperature, barometric pressure, and elevation. These fields are
continuous in nature.
 Examples of discrete fields are: Land use and soil classifications. For these too, any location
in the study area is attributed to a single land use class or soil class.
 Many other phenomena do not manifest themselves everywhere in the study area, but only
in certain localities.
 The array of buoys of the previous El Nino case is a good example. There is a fixed number
of buoys, and for each we knoe exactly where it is located. The buoys are typical example of
(geographic) objects. Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

 Definition: (Geographic) objects populate the study area, and are usually well distinguishable,
discrete, and bounded entities. The space between them is potentially empty or
undetermined. Example: Building, road
 A simple rule-of-thumb is that natural geographic phenomena are usually fields, and man-made
phenomena are usually objects. Many exceptions to this rule may exist, so one must be careful in
applying it.

Geographic phenomena: Geographic fields
 A field is a geographic phenomenon that has a value ‘everywhere’ in the study area.
 Mathematical function:
𝒇 𝒙, 𝒚 Stands for the value of the field 𝒇 at location 𝒙, 𝒚
 In continuous fields, the underlying function is assumed to be ‘mathematically smooth’ –

gradual change
 Continuous fields can be differentiable, meaning we can determine a measure of change in
the field value per unit of distance. Example: Slope from difference in elevation.
 Continuous means that all changes in field values are gradual

Geographic phenomena: Geographic fields cont’d
 Continuous means that all changes in field values are

gradual. In the figure given here, elevation change is
gradual over the terrain.
 In a differentiable field we can measure the change.
 In the example on the left, we can measure the

gradient (slope) as the change of elevation.

Geographic phenomena: Geographic fields cont’d
 Discrete fields cut up the study space in subparts with

a clear boundary, with all locations in one part having
the same value
 Typical examples are land classifications, geological

classes, soil types, landuse types, crop types or natural
vegetation types
 Discrete fields as well as objects make use of

‘bounded’ features.
 A discrete field still assigns a value to every location.

Geographic phenomena: Different types-pictorial cont’d
 Fields:
 Continuous
and
 Discrete
 Objects
 Examples

Geographic phenomena: Geographic objects cont’d
 Objects are discrete and bounded entities
 The space between the objects is potentially ‘empty’ or

‘undetermined’, the space is not really empty, it my
contain roads, gardens, driveways etc, but these
are not houses or buildings.
Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn

Geographic phenomena: Geographic objects cont’d
 Geographic objects sparsely populate study area

 Space between objects is potentially empty/undetermined
 When a geographic phenomena is not present everywhere in the study area, but somehow
‘sparsely’ populates it, we look at it as a collection of geographic objects.
 Such objects are:
 Usually easily distinguished and named and
 Their position in space is determined by one or more of the following parameters:
 Size (how big is it?),
 Location (where is it?),
 Shape (what form is it?),
 Orientation (in which direction is it facing?)

Geographic object types cont’d
 How we want to use the information about a geographic object determines which of the four
above parameters is required to present it.
 For example: In an in-car navigation system, all that matters about geographic objects like
PETROL STATIONS is where they are. Thus, location alone is enough to describe them in
this particular context, (shape, size, & orientation not relevant).
 In the same system, however, roads are important objects, and for these some notion of
location (where does it begin and end), shape (how many lanes does it have), size (how far
can one travel on it) and orientation (in which direction can one travel on it) seem to be
relevant information components.
 Shape is usually important because one of its factors is DIMENSION.
 Dimension relates to whether an object is perceived as a point feature, or a linear, area or
Source: Principles of GIS
volume feature.
Geographic object types cont’d
 The following geographic object types are considered:

 Point feature
 Line feature
 Area feature  Shape is usually important because one of its factors is
 (Volume feature) dimension
 Dimension relates to whether an object is perceived as a
point, line, area or volume
 The petrol stations mentioned above apparently are zero-
dimensional, i. e. they are perceived as points in space.
 Roads are one-dimensional, as they are considered to be
lines in space.

Geographic phenomena-object types cont’d
 We usually do not study objects in isolation (a single object), but

more often we look as collections of objects viewed as a unit.
 Observe that collections of objects can represent phenomena at
a higher aggregation level: Example,
 Forest plots form forests
 Parcels form blocks and blocks form suburbs
 Roads from a road network
 Streams brooks and rivers form a river drainage system
 Most of the collections of objects obey certain natural laws:
 The most common & obvious is that different objects do not
occupy the same location. Ex., petrol station, roads…
The notion boundaries
 Where shape/or size of contiguous areas matter, the notion of boundary comes into play/relevant.
 It is clear that location, shape and size are fully determined if we know an area’s boundary,
 Thus, boundary can adequately represent geographic object.
 Both objects and discrete fields have boundaries

 Two different types of boundaries:
 Crisp boundaries
 A crisp boundary is one that can be determined
with precision. It is dependent on the data
acquisition technique applied (high resolution).
 Fuzzy boundaries
 Fuzzy boundary is not a precise line/not a
discrete line, but rather itself an area of transition.
Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 23
The notion boundaries cont’d
 As a general rule-of-thumb, crisp boundaries are more common in man-made

phenomena, wheres fuzzy boundaries are more common with natural phenomena.

4. Computer representations of geographic information
 So far we only discussed geographic phenomena, in tht following sections we will discuss
computer representations.
 Important considerations in computer representation of geographic phenomena of real world:
 In case of fields:
 It is impossible to store and represent all values for all locations (ex. Elevation)
 Interpolation can be used to repreent quite large numer of them
 In case of objects:
 Object boundaries can only be approximated
 Computer representations can be divided in two groups:
 Tessellations also called the raster data model and
 The vector-data model.

4. Computer representations of continuous phenomena cont’d
 If you take elevation for instance, can be measured at many locations and each location
may give a different value. In order to represent such a phenomena faithfully in computer
memory, we could either:
 Try to store as many (location, elevation) observation pairs as possible, or
 Try to find a symbolic representation of the elevation field function, as a formula in x
and y –like (𝟑𝒙𝟐 + 𝟐𝟎. 𝟎𝟖𝒙 − 𝟕. 𝟑𝟒𝒚) or so-which can be evaluated to give us the
elevation at any given (x, y) location. Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS
 Closer together points have similar values

than locations that are farapart.
 We can use an interpolation function that
allow us to infer a reasonable value for
locations that are not stored.

4. Computer representations of (Regular Tessellation) cont’d
 A tessellation (or tiling) is a partitioning of space into mutually

exclusive cells that together make up the complete/entire study
space.
 With each cell, some (thematic) value is associated to
characterize that part of space.
 There are three types of regular tessellations:
Square cells Hexagonal cells Triangular cells

 In regular tessellation, the cells are of the same shape and size.
 The simplest example is a rectangular raster of unit squares,
represented in a computer in the 2D case as an array of (𝒏𝒙𝒎)
elements.
 In all the regular tessellations, the cells are of the same shape
and size, and the field attribute value assigned to a cell is
associated with the entire area occupied by the cell.
 The square cell tessellation is by far the most commonly used,
mainly because georeferencing a cell is so straightforward.
 These tessellations are known under various names in different
GIS packages, but the most frequently used name is RASTER.

 (b) A RASTER is a set of regularly spaced (and contiguous)

cells with associated (field) values.
 The associated values represent cell values, not point
values. This means that the value for a cell is assumed to be
valid for all locations within the cell (ex. Thematic map).
 The size of the area that a single raster cell represents is called the raster’s resolution.
 Sometimes, the word gris is also used. Grid refers to a collection of regularly spaced (field) values
at the intersections of a network of horizontal and its perpendicular lines (a).
 Grids are often used for discrete measurements that occur at regualr intervals.

Advantages and disadvantages of regular tessellation

 Advantage
 An important advantage of regular tessellations is that we know how they partition space, and
we can make our computations specific to this partitioning. This leads to fast algorithms.
 Disadvantage
 An obvious disadvantage is that they are not adaptive to the spatial phenomena we want to
represent.
 The cell boundaries are both artificial and fixed:
 They may or may not coincide with the boundaries of the phenomena of interest
 For example, suppose we use any of the above regular tessellations to represent elevation in a
perectly flat area. In this case we need just as many cells as in undulating terrain. The data
structure does not adapt to the lack of relief.

4. Computer representations of (Irregular Tessellation)
 Substantial research efforts has been exerted to create

data structures that are adaptive to the phenomena of
interest. Irregular tessellation is more complex
 Though several structures are proposed in literature,
here we will discuss only the so called region
quadtree.
 Irregular tessellation-region quad tree: Again, these
are partitions of space into mutually disjoint cells, but
• No need of taking several points where now the cells vary in size and shape, allowing them to
the terrain has similar elevation. adapt to the spatial phenomena that they represent.
• Cell may vary in size and shape…  An example is region quadtree, see on the next page

4. Computer representations of (Irregular Tessellation) cont’d
 Region quadtree: Quadtree splits up the area into four quadrants. This procedure stops
when all the cells in a quadrant have the same field value.
 The splitting is based on a regular tessellation of square cells, but takes advantage of cases
where neighbouring cells have the same field value, so that they can together be represented
as one bigger cell.
 Example is given on the next page. The example shows a small 8x8 raster with three possible
field values: white, greeen, and blue.
 The quadtree representing the raster is constructed by repeatedly splitting up the area into four
quadrants, which are called NW, NE, SE, SW for obvious reasons.
 The splitting procedure stops when all the cells in a quadrant have the same field value.
 The procedure produces an up-side down, tree-like structure, known as a quadtree.

 To construct the quadtree, the field is successively split into four quadrants until parts have
only a single field value.
 After the first split, the southeast quadrant is entirely green, and this is indicated by a green
square at level two of the tree.
 Other quadrants had to be split further.
3
2 2

 Do the following quadtree exercise at home.
? ? ?
 Imagine a computer representation of elevation Question: which part of study area is flattest?

4. Computer representations of (vector-raster) cont’d
Raster
 Rasters/Tessellations do not explicitly store
georeferences of the phenomena they represent.
 Instead, they provide a georeference of the lower left

corner of the raster and the raster’s resolution, then
 The georeference of all other cells in the raster can be

derived from this information.

4. Computer representations of (vector-raster) cont’d
Vector
 In vector representations, an attempt is made to explicitly
associate georeferences with the geographic space, and
is also known as a vector. This explains the name vector.
 Thus, in vector representations, a georeference is

explicitly associated with the gegraphic phenomena.
 A georeference is a coordinate pair from some

geographic space, also known as a vector.
Two dimensional spaces


4. Computer representations of (vector representation)-TIN cont’d
 Various vector representations

 a. Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)
 It is built from a set of (x, y) locations for which we have a measurement.
 The locations can be arbitrarily scattered in space (not a nice regular grid)
 Observe that in three-dimensional space, three points uniquely determine a plane, as
long as they are not positioned on the same line.
 If we restrict the use of a plane to the area between its three anchor points, we obtain
a triangular tessellation of the complete study area
 Delaunay triangulation:
 as much as possible equal-sided triangles
 circumcircles around triangles do not contain
other anchor points
Triangulation with many Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS
stretched triangles Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 37

4. Computer representations of (vector representation)-TIN cont’d
TIN
 A plane fitted through the anchor points has a fixed aspect and gradient.
 Slope consists of two parts gradient and aspect.
 Slope can be used to compute an approximation of elevation of other locations.

4. Computer representations of (vector representation)-point cont’d

 b. Point representation
 Points are defined as single coordinate pairs (x,y) when we work in 2D or
coordinate triplets (x,y,z) when we work in 3D
 Points are used to represent objects, that are shape- and size less (zero-
dimensional)
 Example: For a tourist city map, a park will not usually be considered a
point feature, but perhaps a museum will, and certainly a public phone
booth might be represented as a point.

4. Computer representations of (vector representation)-line cont’d

 c. Line representation
 Used to represent one-dimensional objects (roads, railroads, canals, rivers…)
 Line is defined by 2 end nodes and 0-n internal nodes.
 An internal node or vertex is like a point that only serves to define the line
Zero internal nodes Several internal nodes


4. Computer representations (vector representation)-area cont’d

 d. Arae representation
 When area objects are stored using a vector approach, the usual technique is
to apply a boundary model. This means that each area feature is represented
by some arc/node structure that determines a polygon as the area’s boundary.
 Example: To represent these building,

their boundary is determined as polygons

4. Computer representations cont’d
 Topology and spatial relationships: Topology is a branch of mathematics that deals with spatial
properties that do not change under a transformation.
 For example, features drawn on a sheet of rubber (as in figure shown below) can be made to
change in shape and size by stretching and pulling the sheet.
 However, some properties of these features do not change:
 Area E is still inside area D

 The neighbourhood relationships between A,
B, C, D, and E stay intact, and their boundaries
have the same start and end nodes, and
 The areas are still bounded by the same
boundaries, only the shapes and lengths of

their perimeters have changed.
 Topology and spatial relationships

 Non-Topological:
 Arae of an area
 Distance between two points
 Bearing of one point from another point
 Length of an arc
 Perimenter of an area
 This is because, their spatial properties will change as a result of
transformation and by stretching and pulling the sheet on which they are
drawn (explained above).

 Mathematical properties of the geometric space
 The space is a three-dimensional Euclidean space where for every point we can determine
its three-dimensional coordinates as a triple (x,y,z) of real numbers
 The space is a metric space, which means that we can always compute the distance
between two points according to a given distance function. Such a function is also known
as a metric function.
 The space is a topological space. For every point in the space we can find a
neighbourhood around it that fully belongs to that space as well.
 Interior and boundary are properties of spatial features that remain invariant under
topological mappings. When transformed, the interior and the boundary of a feature
remains unbroken and intact.

 Simplices as building block

 To obtain some topological sensitivity, simple building blocks have been
proposed with which more complicated representations can be
constructed:
 We can define within the topological space, features that are easy to
handle and that can be used as representations of geographic objects.
 These features are called SIMPLICES as they are the simplest geometric
shapes of some dimension:
 Point (0-Simplex), Line segment (1-Simplex), Triangle (2-Simplex),
and tetrahedron (3-Simplex). (Tetrahedron=A triangular pyramid)
 When we combine various simplices into a single feature, we obtain a
SIMPLICAL COMPLEX. Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

 Topological invariants
 Invariant: unvarying; invariable; constant or a quantity or expression that is constant

throughout a certain range of conditions
 It consists: Exterior, interior, and boundary
Source: Wolfgang Kainz

 Rules of topological consistency
 NB: Point (0-Simplex),

Line segment (1-
Simplex), Triangle (2-
Simplex), and tetrahedron
(3-Simplex).

 Spatial Relationships
 Spatial relationships between two

regions derived from the topological
invariants of intersections of
boundaries and interior.
 The relationships can be read with the
green region on the left and the red
region on the right.

 Scale and resolution
 Map scale can be defined as the ratio between distance on a paper map and distance of the
same stretch in the terrain
 1:50,000  1 cm on map = 50,000 cm in reality
1 cm on map = 500 meters in reality
 Large-scale  ratio is large 1:1000 (more detail)

 Small-scale  ratio is small 1:2500000 (Less detail)
 Digital spatial data, as stored in a GIS, is essentially without scale: Scale is a ratio notion
associated with visual output, like a map or on-screen display, not with the data that was used
to produce the map.
 The size of the area a pixel cell represents is called resolution.


 Selecting the appropriate number of
points to represent an entity is similar to
selecting the raster resolution.
 The more complex the shape of the line
(a) (b) or polygon the more points are used (a).
 Less size of pixels shows better

resolution and more details, while large
size of pixels (b) indicate less resolution
and less detail

 Self test
 Consider a topographic map sheet with a scale of 1:50,000.
 Typically such a sheet covers an area of 20x20 km. on the ground.
 How many rows and columns are required to encode the map with:
a) 100 m pixels………………………….
b) 250 m pixels………………………….
c) 1 km pixels……………………………

 Representations of geographic fields
 Continuous fields (like elevation) can be represented

as:
 Tessellation
 Isolines
 TIN
 Continuous fields when represented as a tessellation
will lead to floating point cell values Integer values
 Both tessellation and TIN can be Floating point

regarded as surfaces
Source: 1.1.7_David Tenenbaum – EEOS 465 / 627 – UMass Bosto

 Representations of geographic fields cont’d
 Discrete fields can be represented as:

 Tessellation
 Polygons
 Discrete raster representations will lead to
integer cell values

Road
 Representations of objects
 Line and point objects are more awkward to

represent using rasters, as rasters are area-
based
 Objects are more naturally represented in vector

 The temporal dimension
 Besides having geometric (where), thematic (what) and topological properties,

geographic phenomena also have temporal characteristics (when)
 This area of work is called change detection.
 Change detection addresses issues like:
 Where and when did change take place?
 What kind of change occurred?
 With what speed did change occur?

 Properties of the time dimension
 Discrete and continuous time:

 discrete time is composed of discrete time
elements (days, years),
 in continuous time no such discrete elements
exist.
 We can also structure time by events (points

in time) as before & after or periods (time
intervals) … Ex. The change occurred b/n
1985 & 1995. see the diagram shown here!


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II.

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION & SPATIAL DATA TYPES

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 1

 Definition: Modeling is the process of producing an abstraction (representation) of the

 Models can never capture the complexity of real world phenomena

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 2

 Models can be static or dynamic:

Fig. Representation of real world phenomena inside a GIS to

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 3

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 6

 If the time interval is missing, we might have a phenomenon of interest i. e. considered to be

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016

 Observation 2: Some phenomena manifest themselves essentially everywhere in the study

 Geographic phenomena can be divided into:

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 9

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 12

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 13

𝒇 𝒙, 𝒚 Stands for the value of the field 𝒇 at location 𝒙, 𝒚

 In continuous fields, the underlying function is assumed to be ‘mathematically smooth’ –

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 14

 Continuous means that all changes in field values are

 In a differentiable field we can measure the change.

 In the example on the left, we can measure the

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 15

 Discrete fields cut up the study space in subparts with

 Typical examples are land classifications, geological

 Discrete fields as well as objects make use of

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 16

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 17

 Objects are discrete and bounded entities

 The space between the objects is potentially ‘empty’ or

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 18

 Geographic objects sparsely populate study area

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 19

 The following geographic object types are considered:

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 21

 We usually do not study objects in isolation (a single object), but

 Both objects and discrete fields have boundaries

 As a general rule-of-thumb, crisp boundaries are more common in man-made

Source: Principles of GIS

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 24

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 25

 Closer together points have similar values

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 26

 A tessellation (or tiling) is a partitioning of space into mutually

Square cells Hexagonal cells Triangular cells

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 27

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 28

 (b) A RASTER is a set of regularly spaced (and contiguous)

Source: Ellen-Wien Augustijn and Principles of GIS

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 29

Advantages and disadvantages of regular tessellation

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 30

 Substantial research efforts has been exerted to create

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 31

Compiled by Nigatu W. HU-IoT-BEE-July, 2016 32