What Is Topology?

In 1736, the mathematician Leonhard Euler published a paper that arguably started the branch of mathematics
known as topology. he problem that led to Euler!s work in this area, known as "he #e$en %ridges of &'nigsberg," is
described in the accompanying article "(onundrum Inspires opology." )ore recently, the *nited #tates (ensus
%ureau, while preparing for the 1+7, census, pioneered the application of mathematical topology to maps to reduce
the errors in tabulating massi$e amounts of census data. oday, topology in -I# is generally defined as the spatial
relationships between ad.acent or neighboring features.
)athematical topology assumes that geographic features occur on a two/dimensional plane. hrough planar
enforcement, spatial features can be represented through nodes 0,/dimensional cells12 edges, sometimes called arcs
0one/dimensional cells12 or polygons 0two/dimensional cells1. %ecause features can e3ist only on a plane, lines that
cross are broken into separate lines that terminate at nodes representing intersections rather than simple $ertices.
In -I#, topology is implemented through data structure. 4n 4rcInfo co$erage is a familiar topological data structure. 4
co$erage e3plicitly stores topological relationships among neighboring polygons in the 4rc 4ttribute able 0441 by
storing the ad.acent polygon I5s in the L6oly and 76oly fields. 4d.acent lines are connected through nodes, and this
information is stored in the arc/node table. he 4rcInfo commands, (LE48 and %*IL5, enforce planar topology on
data and update topology tables.
9$er the past two or three decades, the general consensus in the -I# community had been that topological data
structures are ad$antageous because they pro$ide an automated way to handle digiti:ing and editing errors and
artifacts2 reduce data storage for polygons because boundaries between ad.acent polygons are stored only once2 and
enable ad$anced spatial analyses such as ad.acency, connecti$ity, and containment. 4nother important conse;uence
of planar enforcement is that a map that has topology contains space/filling, nono$erlapping polygons. (onse;uently,
so/called cartographic 0i.e., nontopological1 data structures are no longer used by mainstream -I# software.