Part One GIS DBU Chap - 3

Part I: GIS
Chapter Three
Nature of Geographic Data and GIS Data

Models
Debre Berhan University

College of Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences
Jan/2023
Debre Berhan
1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 1

Outline of the chapter
College of the Chapter
oData vs information
oGeographic data types
oGeographic phenomena
Geographic fields
Geographic objects
oGIS data models
Vector data model
Raster data model
Triangular irregular network (TIN)

Data vs Information
o Data consist of numbers, text, or symbols

o It also refers to facts, measurements, characteristics, or
traits of an object of interest.
o Information is an answer to a question based on raw data.
o We transform data into information through the use of an
Information System.
o Data are assembled together in a database

o Database is a collection of information about things and
their relationship to each other.
o GIS databases are called spatial database since it refers
to the location of a phenomena.

Data
Once data are put into

context, used to answer
questions, situated
Information within analytical
frameworks, or used to
obtain insights, they
become information.
Types of Data
Generally there are three types of data which are involved in

GIS based analysis and mapping,
Spatial data,
Attribute data and
Metadata.
Spatial data: -
 It is also known as geospatial data or geographic information.
 It is the data that identifies the geographic location of features
and boundaries on Earth,
 It is usually stored as coordinates and topology
 It is data that can be mapped.

o Attribute data
o It describes characteristics of the spatial features.

o It can be quantitative and/or qualitative in nature.
o It is often referred to as tabular data.
o It is also known as non-spatial characteristics of an

entity.
o Color, depth, weight, owner, components vegetation
type, or land use are examples of variables that may
be used as attributes.

Attribute data
o Attributes have values, e.g. color may be blue, black or

brown, weight from 0.0 to 500, or land use may be
urban, agriculture, or undeveloped.
o Attributes of different types may be grouped together

to describe the non spatial properties of each object in
the database.
o These attribute data may take many forms but all
attribute data can be categorized as
 nominal,
 ordinal, or
 interval/ratio attributes.

Nominal Attributes
o The simplest type of attribute, termed nominal, is one

that serves only to identify or distinguish one entity
from another.
o Place names, color, vegetation types, city name,
owner of the parcel or soil series etc.
o Each serves only to identify the particular instance of

a class of entities and to distinguish it from other
members of the same class.
o There is no implied order, size, or quantitative
information contained in the nominal attributes.

Ordinal Attributes
o Attributes are ordinal if their values have a natural order.

o Ordinal data imply a rank order or scale by their values.
o It may be descriptive such as small, medium or large or

they may be numeric such as an erosion class which takes
values from 1 through 10.
o An object with an ordinal attribute that has a value of four

has a higher rank for that attribute than an object with a
value of two.
o Averaging makes no sense either.

Interval/ratio
o Interval/ratio attributes are used for numeric items

where both magnitudes are reflected in the numbers.
o Attributes are interval if the differences between values
make sense. Eg T is interval since it is possible to put
reading in interval.
o Attributes are ratio if the ratios between values make
sense. Eg Weight is ratio, because it makes sense to say
lpke twice as heavy as etc ;
o These data are often recorded as real numbers most often
on a linear scale. Area, length, weight, value, height, or
depth is a few eg. of interval/ration variables.

Types of Data
o Metadata: -
is data about the data itself, which includes, the spatial
reference system attached to the spatial data, accuracy,
date of collection, author, description about every
attribute fields, and so on.

Geographic Phenomena/entity
o Geographic entities can also be called as geographic

phenomena.
o Each geographic entity is represented by a spatial feature
or cartographic object in the GIS.
o An entity or geographic feature occupies position in space

about which data describing the attributes of the entity and its
geographic location are recorded.
Can be named/described – what is it?

Can be geo-referenced – where is it?
Can be assigned a time at which it is/was present

Types of Geographic Entity
o Firstly, in order to be able to represent a phenomenon in a

GIS requires us to state what it is, and where it is.
o We must provide a description or at least a name on the

one hand, and a georeference on the other hand.
o Secondly, some phenomena manifest themselves

essentially everywhere in the study area, while others only
do so in certain localities.

o Based on manifestation within the area of consideration

geographic entities can be broadly classified into two types.
Geographic fields and

Geographic objects
o Geographic fields:
They manifest themselves everywhere in the study area.
Continuous in nature and fuzzy boundary nature.
Are an entity at which every point in the study area has a
value.
Examples are: temp, pressure, elevation, etc.


Geographic Objects
o Are geographic phenomena, which do not manifest

themselves everywhere in the study area.
o These entities are characterized by their discrete boundary.
o They are easily distinguishable one from the other.
o Examples include: building, road, parcel, river, etc.
o Their position in space can be determined by a combination

of:
Location (where is it)
Shape (what form is it?)
Size (how big is it?)
Orientation (in which direction is it facing?)

Geographic Objects

Overall
o Most natural made features are geographic fields or

continuous fields,
o Most manmade phenomena are geographic objects or

discrete objects; they have crisp/sharp boundary.
o Therefore, GIS represents real world objects in a simplified

view in digital form.
o However, the real world entity need to reduce/ model into

smaller size so that it can be easily coded in a computer
database.

GIS Data Models
o Spatial data is a fundamental component in any GIS

environment.
o The data is based on the perception of the world as
being occupied by features.
o Data in a GIS represent a simplified view of physical

entities:-the roads, mountains, accident locations, or
other features we care about.
o Each feature is an entity which can be described by its

attribute or property, and its location on earth can be
mapped using a spatial reference.
GIS Data Models

GIS Data Models
o We can observe so little parts of the Earth surface

directly, we need to find methods for learning about other
parts.
o Data models are a set of rules and/or constructs used to

represent aspects of the real world in a computer.
o GIS data models begin with conceptualization, how you
will represent the real world phenomena or entities.
o The most common representation of spatial data

models that measures the landscape is using discrete
data (vector model) and continuous data (raster model).

Vector data model
o It use discrete objects such as point, lines and

polygons to represent the geometry of the real-
world entities, discrete entities.
o A farm field, road, river, lake, wetland, cities and

census tracts are examples of discrete entities that
may be represented by discrete objects.
o Hence, three basic types of vector objects points,

lines, and polygon used to represent objects in the
real world.

Points, lines and polygon
Point features
o A point uses a single coordinate pair to represent the location of
an entity.
o It is the building block of lines and polygons.
o Attribute data are attached to each point.
o E.g. Gas wells, light poles, accident location, and survey can be
represented as point feature.
Line features
o Linear features, are represented as lines in vector models.
o It often represented as an ordered set of coordinate pairs.
o Line may be represented by two coordinate pairs or more, at least
one at the start and one at the end of the line.
o Attributes may be attached to the whole line, or to nodes & vertices.
o E.g., transport networks: highways, railroads, river, etc.
Polygons
o Area entities are most often represented by closed

polygons. Polygons are formed by a set of connected lines.
o Polygons may be adjacent to other polygons and thus share

“bordering” or “edge” lines with other polygons.
o Attribute data may be attached to the polygons, e.g., area,

perimeter, land cover type, or country name may be linked
to each polygon.
o E.g. Forest, wetlands, urban areas, lakes, buildings, parcels,

soil data etc.

Polygons
o A simple boundary model for the polygons A, B and C. For each

arc, we store the start and end node its left and
right polygon. The ‘polygon’ W denotes the outside world polygon.

Raster Data Model
o Raster data model represents continuous

phenomena.
o It uses grid cells for representing the real world data.
o The simplest form of raster data is rectangular cells

called pixel.
o Pixel is the building block raster data.
o It consists of rows and columns of cells where in each

cell is stored a single value.
o E.g. Elevation, rainfall, temperature, soil moisture, etc.

Conversion b/n Raster and Vector Models
o Vector-to-raster conversion involves assigning a cell value for

each position occupied by vector features.
o Vector point features are typically assumed to have no
dimension.
o Points in a raster data set must be represented by a value in a

raster cell, so points have at least the dimension of the raster
cell after conversion from vector-to-raster models.
o The cell in which the point resides is given a number or other

code identifying the point feature occurring at the cell location.

o Raster cells may be coded using different criteria.

o One simple method assigns a value to a cell if a vector
line intersects with any part of the cell.
o The output from vector-to-raster conversion depends on

the algorithm used, even though you use the same input.
o Typically, a cell size is chosen such that the diagonal cell

dimension is smaller than the distance


Comparison of Raster & Vector model
o The question often arises, “which are better, raster or vector

data models?”
o The answer is neither of both.
o The choice often depends on a number of factors including:

Predominant type of data (discrete or continuous),
The expected type of analysis, (buffer or what?)
Available storage; e.g. raster data need high volume
The main sources input data or the expertise of human
operators.

Advantage and Disad. of Vector data
Advantage of vector model Disadvantage of vector model
Data can be represented at its The location of each vertex

original resolution needs to be stored explicitly.
Graphic output is usually more Some spatial analysis
aesthetically pleasing procedures are complex
Accurate geographic location of
More complex data structure
data is maintained
Allows for efficient encoding of Overlaying multiple vector
topology maps is often time consuming
Inefficient for remotely sensed
Requires less disk storage space.
data

Advantage and Disad. of Raster data
Advantage of raster model Disadvantage of raster model

The geographic location of each
Graphical output may be less
cell is implied by its position in
pleasing
the cell matrix.
Requires greater storage space
Simple data structure
on a computer
Efficient for remotely sensed Difficult to represent
data or scanned data topological relationships
Grid-cell systems are very Processing of associated
compatible with raster-based attribute data may be
output devices cumbersome.
Simple spatial analysis Since most input data is in
procedure (usually easy to vector form, data must undergo
program and quick to perform) vector-to-raster conversion.

Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)
o The TIN represents a surface as a set of irregularly located

points, joined by a line which forms triangles of different sizes.
Each triangle point (node) stores the x, y, and z values.
o The values in a TIN are interpolated from the collected sample
points.
o The value on a TIN surface will be estimated using the x, y, and

z values of each triangle. In addition, the slope and aspect of
each triangle face will be calculated.
o The TIN takes more space, and therefore it is recommended to
use them for small areas that require accurate modeling
presentation.

o A triangulated irregular network (TIN) is a data model

commonly used to represent terrain heights.
o TIN model may be more complex than simple raster
models, it is often more efficient for storing terrain data in
areas with variable relief.
o Surveyors often collect more samples per unit area where

the terrain is highly variable.
o Delaunay triangles: The set of triangles formed in a TIN ,
connecting points to the nearest points to create triangles,
while ensuring that the triangle edges don’t cross, and are
formed by convergent circles.

TIN

Triangular Irregular Network (NIT)
o Since we can pick many triples of points, and therefore we can

have many elevation approximations for a single location, such
as P. The triangles are more equilateral; this is a Delaunay
triangulation.

Topology
o It has already been established that in a vector-based GIS,

primary geometries (i.e., points, lines, and polygons) represent
real-world features.
o Topology is the set of rules through which a GIS represents
features with the primary geometric shapes (i.e., point, line, and
polygon).
o The vector data model utilizes topology to organize spatial
relationships between discrete features.
o In essence, the main functions of topology are to define:
 feature-to-feature locality or, simply, where a feature is in
relation to another feature,
 what is shared between different features, and
 how features are grouped or connected within a set.

Topology
o Topology establishes geometric harmony within a

geographic data set.
o All types of feature are generally categorized into the
three primary functions of topology:
Feature-to-feature locality, called a complement;
What different features share, called an
intersection;
How features are grouped, called a union.
o The lighter areas are considered complementary
shapes (A and B ), while the darkest area depicts
the intersection of the two shapes (C ).

Topology
o Topology also helps to avoid repeating feature data, such

as shared boundaries and shared nodes (points).
B
C

Thank you!!!

o The principles behind a TIN are simple. It is built from a

set of locations for which we have a measurement, for
instance an elevation.
o The locations can be arbitrarily scattered in space, and

are usually not on a nice regular grid.
o Any location together with its elevation value can be

viewed as a point in three-dimensional space.

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Part I: GIS

Nature of Geographic Data and GIS Data

Debre Berhan University

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 1

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 2

o Data consist of numbers, text, or symbols

o Data are assembled together in a database

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 3

Once data are put into

Generally there are three types of data which are involved in

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 5

o It describes characteristics of the spatial features.

o It is also known as non-spatial characteristics of an

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 6

o Attributes have values, e.g. color may be blue, black or

o Attributes of different types may be grouped together

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 7

o The simplest type of attribute, termed nominal, is one

o Each serves only to identify the particular instance of

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 8

o Attributes are ordinal if their values have a natural order.

o It may be descriptive such as small, medium or large or

o An object with an ordinal attribute that has a value of four

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 9

o Interval/ratio attributes are used for numeric items

1/21/2023 GIS for MSc students 10

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 11

o Geographic entities can also be called as geographic

o An entity or geographic feature occupies position in space

Can be named/described – what is it?

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 12

o Firstly, in order to be able to represent a phenomenon in a

o We must provide a description or at least a name on the

o Secondly, some phenomena manifest themselves

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 13

o Based on manifestation within the area of consideration

Geographic fields and

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 14

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 15

o Are geographic phenomena, which do not manifest

o Their position in space can be determined by a combination

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 16

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 17

o Most natural made features are geographic fields or

o Most manmade phenomena are geographic objects or

o Therefore, GIS represents real world objects in a simplified

o However, the real world entity need to reduce/ model into

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 18

o Spatial data is a fundamental component in any GIS

o Data in a GIS represent a simplified view of physical

o Each feature is an entity which can be described by its

1/20/2023 GIS for MSc students 20

o We can observe so little parts of the Earth surface

o Data models are a set of rules and/or constructs used to

o The most common representation of spatial data

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 21

o It use discrete objects such as point, lines and

o A farm field, road, river, lake, wetland, cities and

o Hence, three basic types of vector objects points,

1/19/2023 GIS for MSc students 22

o Area entities are most often represented by closed

o Polygons may be adjacent to other polygons and thus share

o Attribute data may be attached to the polygons, e.g., area,