CHAPTER TWO

GIS DATA
MODELS

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

Feb/14/2024
After completing this unit, you should
be able to:

❖ Define various GIS data models.

❖ Identify the discrete elements used in Vector data model

❖ Describe common spatial data formats used in GIS.

❖ Describe the vector and raster data models used in GIS and give
examples.
❖ Discus structural capabilities of vector and raster data
❖ Discuss attribute data Model
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 2.1 GIS Data and Its Sources
What is Data ?
❖ It is a collection of facts and figures to be used for a
specific analysis to extract new information.
❖ When it arranged in an organized form, can be called
information.
❖ Based on its source it can be primary and secondary
data.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 Primary and Secondary data
❖ Primary data sources are those collected in digital format
specifically for use in a GIS project. It is first hand information.
❖ Examples of primary data sources are:
✓ GPS measurements
✓ Surveying(Total station), etc.
✓ Remote sensing data
❖ Secondary data are data collected from other individuals or
organizations work. Examples of secondary data:
✓ Topographic map, satellite image,
✓ Meteorological data , Population census, other Digital
documents,
✓ Aerial photographs and Thematic maps. By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 2.2. Concepts of GIS Data Models

❖Data in a GIS represents in simplified view of physical

entities or phenomena known as Model.
❖A model give better understanding of the system or a
process.
❖A data model: is a set of constructs for describing and
representing selected aspects of the real world in a
computer.
❖The purpose of spatial data model is to provide a
formal means of representing and manipulating
spatially referenced information.
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
Types of Spatial Data Model
➢ Two types of spatial
data models:
1. Vector Data
model
2. Raster data
model

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

1. Vector Data Model
❖Vector data model uses
discrete elements such as
points, lines and polygons
to represent the
geometry of real world
entities.
❖Points, lines, and
polygons can be defined
by the coordinate
geometry(COGO).

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 2.3. Characteristics of Vector Data Models

❖A vector data model uses sets of coordinates and

associated attribute data to define discrete objects.
❖Geometric elements of a vector representation:

Area

Lines

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

I. Pont Representations

❖ A point uses a single coordinate pair to represent the

location of an entity.
❖ Have no dimension.
❖ Some features may have real physical dimension, but for
the purpose of GIS users they may be represented as
points.
❖ It represents geographic features such as wells, sample
locations, or trees.
❖ They are used to represent or model real-world objects,
such as building, power pole, survey benchmarks, and
street lights sample location etc..
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 Cont’d..

❖ A vector spatial data model uses two

dimensional Cartesian(x, y) coordinate
system to store the shape of a spatial
entity.
❖ In vector world the point is the basic
building block from which all spatial
entities are constructed.
❖ The simplest spatial entity, the point, is
represented by a single (x, y) coordinate
pair.
❖ Line and area entities are constructed
by connecting a series of points into
chains and polygons.
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 Cont’d..

❖Thus when you choose to use points to represent a

feature is mostly a matter of three things.
❖These are:
1. Scale (how far away are you from the feature),
2. Convenience (it takes less time and effort to
create point features in GIS than polygon
features), and
3. The type of feature (some things like telephone
poles just don't make sense to be stored as
polygons)
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 ii. Linear Representations

❖Linear Features often referred to as arcs, are

represented as lines.
❖Lines typically have a starting, ending and
intermediate points to represent the shape of
the linear entity.
❖Starting points and end points sometimes
referred to as nodes.
❖Intermediate points in a line are referred to as
vertices.
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 Cont’d..

❖When two points are joined, a line is created. When

more than two are joined they form a 'line of lines', or
polyline or arc.
❖While a point feature has a single vertex, a polyline has
two or more vertices.
❖The polyline is a continuous path drawn through each
vertex.
❖Lines can be used represent linear features such as
roads, rivers, contours, boundary, footpaths, flight
paths and so on.
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
iii. Polygon Representations

❖Area entities: are most often represented by

closed polygon.
❖These polygons are formed by a set of
connected lines.
❖A set of lines connected starting to ending
point.
❖Polygons have an interior region and may
entirely enclose other polygons in this region.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

iii. Polygon Representations

❖It involves numerous vector points that are connected

in sequence.
❖Like polyline features, polygons are created from a
series of vertices that are connected with a
continuous line.
❖However because a polygon always describes an
enclosed area, the first and last vertices should always
be at the same place.
❖Polygon features are enclosed areas like dams,
islands, country boundaries, land uses and so on.
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
Point, Line and Area
Representations

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 Cont.

❖N.B. There is no uniformly superior way to represent

features.
❖The representation depends as much on the detail,
accuracy, and intended use of the data set as our
common conception and general shape of the objects.
❖E.g. Buildings may be represented by either point,
line, or polygon features.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 Advantages and Disadvantages of Vector data
Model
Advantages
❖Requires less disk storage
space
❖Precise location of features
❖Storing many attributes
❖Flexible for cartography
❖ Compact storage of
information
❖Ideally suited for certain
types of analysis, especially
areas, lengths, Connections
Disadvantages
❖ Complex data structure
❖ Less compatibility with
remotely sensed data
❖ Expensive software and
hardware
❖ Not appropriate to
represent continuous
data
❖ Overlaying multiple
vector are often time
consuming
 Topological vector models

❖Topology: is the study of geometric properties that do

not change when the forms are bent, stretched or
undergo similar transformations.
❖Topological vector models: explicitly record topological
relationships such as adjacency and connectivity in the
data files.
❖Topological vector models may also enforce particular
types of topological relationships.
❖It enhance many vector data operations.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

A. Network Topology

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

B. Planar topology

❖Planar topology – requires that all features occur on

a two dimensional surface.
❖There can be no overlaps among lines or polygons in
the same layer.
❖At each line there must be an intersection than
crossing.
❖Dangles- lines that do not connect to other lines.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

Planar topology

❖Property parcels of land must adjoin each other

exactly, without gaps or overlaps.
❖This two-dimensional graph is called a planar
topology.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

Topological relationships
❖ The relationships that do not change if you
imagine a map being on a rubber sheet and you
pull and stretch the rubber sheet in different
directions.

❖ Vector and TIN data can have topological structure.

❖ Raster and images can not have a topological structure.
By: Eyob A..
 Common File extension of vector data

File Extension Description

ESRI shapefile , Feature
.shp
geometry
Index format for the feature
.shx
geometry
Feature attribute information
.dbf
in dBASE format
Geocoding index for read-
write shapefiles with ODB
.mxs
format
DXFs/DWG Autocad file
shp.xml Metadata in XML format
TIGER/Lines (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing
system By: Eyob A..
 2. Raster data Model

❖Raster data model is

representation of the
continuous surface which
its representation uses an
array of cells, or pixels, to
represent real-world
objects.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 2. Raster data Model

❖In its simplest form, a raster consists of a matrix of cells

organized into rows and column where each cell
contains a value representing information, such as
temperature, vegetation, Elevation, mean temperature,
slope, average rainfall, cumulative ozone exposure, or
soil moisture.
❖Raster model is used most commonly with variables
that change continuously across a region.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 Cont’d..

❖Raster are digital aerial photographs, imagery

from satellites, digital pictures, or even scanned
maps.
❖In this format a single value is stored against each
cell.
❖Visual images ( that is color and /or hue)
❖Discrete Value, such as land use continuous
value, such as rainfall.
❖Null values if no data is available.
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
Cont’d..

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 Raster Data Type

1. Thematic data:
❖ It is used to
representing
features such as
land use or soils
data. For example,
Landsat satellite
images are used to
analyze land cover

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 Raster Data Type
2. Grid raster data
❖Are well suited for
representing data that
changes continuously
across a landscape
(surface).
❖The raster usually
represents a continuous
field (elevation,
temperature, chemical
concentration) and is
sometimes called lattice.
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 Raster Data Sources

Air Photos

Satellite
Imagery

Scanned Maps
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
Examples:

❖ Remote sensing satellites

❖ (e.g. multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper
commonly used in GIS applications with 30 m
ground resolution)
❖ Aerial Photographs
❖ Quick bird images
❖Spot image, etc

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 Examples of Raster Data / Grids:
Scanned and georeferenced topographic maps

(Panchromatic satellite imagery or aerial photos)

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 (Multispectral Landsat imagery)

(Classified images)

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

Digital Elevation Models (DEM) Analytical Hillshading

Surface Analysis (Slope) Surface Analysis (Aspect)

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
 Characteristics of raster based on cell size

❖The level of detailed represented by a raster is

often dependent on the cell( pixel) size or spatial
resolution of the raster.
❖The cell must be small enough to capture the
required detail but large enough so computer
storage and analysis can be performed
efficiently.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

Characteristics of raster based on cell size

Smaller cell size Larger cell size

❖Higher resolution ❖Lower resolution
❖Higher feature spatial ❖Lower feature spatial
accuracy accuracy
❖Slower display ❖Faster display
❖Slower processor ❖Faster processor
❖Larger file size ❖Smaller file size

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages
Disadvantages
➢Simple data
structure ➢Large amount of data
➢Easy overlay ➢Projection transformation
is difficult
➢Various kinds of
spatial analysis ➢Different scales between
layers can be difficult
➢Uniform size and
shape ➢May lose information due
to generalization
➢Cheaper technology

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 TIN and DEM
❖In addition to the two main data models there are also
other data models that may be described as variants,
hybrids or special forms by some GIS users.
❖These are TIN and DEM
❖TIN stands for triangulated irregular network
❖This model is often used to represent surfaces, Such as
elevations, through a combination of point, line and
area features.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 TIN and DEM
❖ DEM stands for Digital Elevation Model is the digital
representation of the land surface elevation with respect to any
reference datum.
❖ It is frequently used to refer to any digital representation of a
topographic surface and it is the simplest form of digital
representation of topography .
❖ DEMs are used to determine terrain attributes such as elevation
at any point, slope and aspect ,
❖ Terrain features like drainage basins and channel networks can
also be identified from the DEM.
❖ DEM are widely used in hydrologic and geologic analyses, hazard
monitoring, natural resources exploration, agricultural
management etc
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
Basic data structures for GIS
Vector

Raster

TIN (triangulated
irregular network)

Tabular information
(attribute table)
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
A comparison of Raster and vector data model

• Data structure –
– Raster- usually simple
– Vector- usually complex
• Storage requirements
– Raster- large for most data sets
– Vector- small for most data sets
• Coordinates conversion
– Raster- may be slow depending on size of data sets
– Vector- simple
• Analysis
– Raster- easy for continuous data, simple for many layer combinations
– Vector- preferred for network analyses, complex for other spatial
operations
By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng
Cont’d
❖Positional precision
❖Raster- floor set by pixel size
❖Vector- limited only by quality of positional
measurements
❖Accessibility
❖Raster- easy to modify or program due to simple
data structure
❖Vector- often complex
❖Display and output
❖Raster- good for images not for discrete features
❖Vector- map like, poor for images
Cont.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

Raster and Vector Data
Raster data are described by a cell grid, one value per cell

Vector Raster

Point

Line
Zone of cells
Polygon

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

Cont.

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

 2.5. Attribute Data Model

❖ Attribute data are the

information linked to the
geographic features (spatial
data) that describe features.
❖ That is, attribute data are the
graphic information
associated with a point, line,
or area elements in a GIS

By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng

Unit Assessment Questions
• How do we represent the world/spatial data in a GIS
database?
• What is spatial data model?
• What are the common spatial data models used in
GIS?
• What is the difference between point, line and areal
representations?
• What are the major diffidence between vector and
raster data structure?
• What are the major advantage and limitations of
vector and raster data models?
• Attribute data model? By: Eyob A.. MWU CoE Seng