Geographic Information Systems

Data Entry

Lecture 3
Week 4
Data checks and repairs

Acquired data sets must be checked for consistency and

completeness.

There are different approaches to clean up data. Errors

can be identified automatically, after which manual editing
methods can be applied to correct the
errors.

Alternatively, a system may identify and Automatically

correct many errors.
Associating attributes

Attributes may be automatically associated

with features, when they have been
given unique identifiers.

In vector data, attributes are assigned directly

to the features, while in a raster
the attributes are assigned to all cells that
represent a feature.
Rasterization or vectorization

If much or all of the subsequent spatial data

analysis is to be carried out on raster data, one
may want to convert vector data sets to raster
data.

This process is known as rasterization.

Raster to Vector Conversion
Raster to Vector Conversion
Raster to Vector Conversion
Raster to Vector Conversion
Raster to Vector Conversion is not as mystical as
it sometimes sounds.
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Rasterization or vectorization

There is an inverse operation, called

vectorization, that produces a vector data
set from a raster.

Vectorization is the process that attempts to

distill points, lines and polygons from a
scanned image.
Rasterization or vectorization

Pattern recognition methods—like Optical

Character Recognition (OCR) for text—can be
used for the automatic detection of graphic
symbols and text.

Once symbols are recognized as image

patterns, they can be replaced by symbols in
vector format, or better, by attribute data.
Vectorization causes errors such as small
spikes along lines, rounded corners,
errors in T- and X-junctions, displaced lines or
jagged curves. These errors are
corrected in an automatic or interactive post-
processing phase.
Rasterization or vectorization

The choice of digitizing technique depends on

the quality, complexity and contents of the
input document.
•Complex images are better manually
digitized;
•simple images are better automatically
digitized.
•Images that are full of detail and symbols-like
topographic maps and aerial photograph-are
therefore better manually digitized.
Rasterization or vectorization

•Automatic digitizing in interactive mode is

more suitable for images with few types of
information that require some interpretation,
as is the case in cadastral maps.

•Fully automatic digitizing is feasible for maps

that depict mainly one type of information-as
in cadastral boundaries and contour lines.
Digitizer Tablet
Combining multiple data sources:

A GIS project usually involves multiple data sets, so

a next step addresses the issue of how these
multiple sets relate to each other. There are three
fundamental cases to be considered if we compare
data sets pairwise:
Combining multiple data sources:
There are three fundamental cases to be considered
if we compare data sets pairwise:
 They may be about the same area, but differ in
accuracy,
They may be about the same area, but differ in
choice of representation, and
 They may be about adjacent areas, and have to
be merged into a single dataset.
Differences in accuracy
Images come at a certain resolution, and
paper maps at a certain scale. This typically
results in differences of resolution of acquired
data sets, all the more since map features are
sometimes intentionally displaced to improve
the map.
Differences in representation
There exist more advanced GIS applications
that require the possibility of representing
the same geographic phenomenon in different
ways and different scales.
Differences in representation
For example, a small-scale national road network
analysis may represent villages as point objects,
but a nation-wide urban population density study
should regard all municipalities as represented
by polygons.

The systems that support this type of data

traversal are called multi-representation systems.
Merging data sets of adjacent areas
When individual data sets have been prepared
as described above, they sometimes have to be
matched together such that a single ‘seamless’
data set results, and that the appearance of the
integrated geometry is as homogeneous as
possible.
Merging data sets of adjacent areas
When individual data sets have been prepared
as described above, they sometimes have to be
matched together such that a single ‘seamless’
data set results, and that the appearance of the
integrated geometry is as homogeneous as
possible.