Lecture 05

Geographic Data Modeling

Real World and Data Models

•The real world is far too complex to model in its entirety
within any information system, so only specific areas of
interest should be selected for inclusion within a given GIS
application.

•Once a particular application area has been chosen the next

task is to select those features which are relevant to the
application and to capture information about their locations
and characteristics.

•In order to bring the real world into GIS, one has to make
use of simplified models of the real world

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REPRESENTATION AND DATA STRUCTURES

Important to note the selection process

as we move from real world to data Entity
model...this reflects our
conceptualization, and affects much of
what we can do
Terms
Entities - those "things" in the real world
we wish to represent (Rivers, buildings,
soil types, wetlands) Object

Objects - our representation in a data

model, which generally includes both
geometric information (spatial data) and
descriptive information (aspatial or
attribute data).
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Real World
Data Model Data
Structure
1.2 , 4.7
5.8 , 3.6
8.9 , 7.2
.
.

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 REPRESENTATION AND DATA STRUCTURES

Real world - phenomena that exist

Data model - an abstraction, identifying those phenomena and

properties we deem relevant for our applications

Data and file structures - computer representation and storage

scheme of the data model, often shown as diagrams and lists

Data models
A Data model is: A set of constructs for describing and representing
selected aspects of the real-world in a computer.

A GIS Data model is :A consistent way of defining and

representing spatial objects and of representing the relationships
among the objects

GIS Data models include at least 2 parts –

Coordinate data - pairs or triplets of numbers that define location

Attribute data - text, numbers, images, or other “non-spatial” data

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Role of a Data Model

Levels of Data Model Abstraction

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Levels of Data Model Abstraction :
Reality

Reality is made up of real-world phenomena

and includes all aspects that may or may not be
perceived by individuals, or deemed relevant to
a particular application.

Levels of Data Model Abstraction:

conceptual model
The conceptual model is a human-oriented, often
partially structured, model of selected objects and
processes that are thought relevant to a particular
problem domain.

The conceptual modeling phase begins with definition

of the main types of objects to be represented in the GIS
and concludes with a conceptual description of the main
types of objects and relationships between them.

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Levels of Data Model Abstraction:
Logical model
The logical model is an implementation-oriented
representation of reality that is often expressed in
the form of diagrams and lists.

The logical modeling phase leads to the creation

of diagrams and lists describing the names of
objects, their behavior, and the type of
interaction between objects.

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Levels of Data Model Abstraction:

Physical model
The physical model portrays the actual
implementation in a GIS, and often comprises
tables stored as files or databases.

The physical modeling phase involves describing

the exact files or database tables used to store the
data, the relationships between objects types, and
the precise operations that can be performed.

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 REPRESENTATION AND DATA STRUCTURES
Coordinates and Attributes

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REPRESENTATION AND
DATA STRUCTURES
Geographic data are often in
layers which represent specific
surface features, or themes,
•Most common data e.g., soils, roads, or elevation

models define thematic La y er 3

layers
La y er 2

•Typically, layers, one

layer for each distinct La y er 1

view of a theme

Ea r t h
su r f a c e

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 REPRESENTATION AND DATA STRUCTURES

Given our layering scheme, we

can get multiple objects from a
single entity, e.g., lake may be a
municipal water source, a
recreation area, a flood control
sink, or a wildlife wintering
habitat.

We typically store different

object types (even from the
same entity) in different layers.

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Representations and Data Structures

• We typically have a one-to-one
correspondence between entities (the
real world thing) and objects (the
computer representation) in a layer – but
not always

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We typically
represent entities
as one of four
types of objects –

•points
•lines
•areas
•3-D objects

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Common Data Models

Vector Raster

Y Points Points

( x,y )

Area Area
Line Line

X
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 • Raster uses a grid cell structure
19 • Vector is more like a drawn map

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