Vector Data Model

VECTOR DATA MODEL
REPRESENTATION OF SPATIAL FEATURES
• Real-world objects are represented as a point, a line and a polygon

• Vector data model comprises discrete features
• Points identify locations
• Lines connect points
• Areas (polygons) consist of
connected line segments
POINT FEATURES
• A point has zero dimension and has only the property of

location.
• A point feature is made of a point or a set
of points.(e.g., city, hospital, well, ets. )
LINE FEATURES
• A line is one-dimensional and has the property of

length, in addition to location
• A line has two end points and may have additional
points in between to mark the shape of the line
• The shape of a line may be a connection of straight-
line segments
• A line feature is made of a line or a set of lines.
• River, stream, rail, road, etc are examples of line
features.
POLYGON FEATURES
• A polygon is two-dimensional and has the properties of area

(size) and perimeter, in addition to location.
• Made of connected, closed, nonintersecting lines, the
perimeter or the boundary define the area of a polygon.
• A polygon may stand alone or share boundaries with other
polygons.
• A polygon may also have a hole within its extent, resulting
in an exterior and an interior boundary.
• Examples of polygon features include vegetated areas,
urban areas, and water bodies.
TOPOLOGY
Topology is the branch of mathematics used to define spatial relationships

between entities (ESRI, 1999). GIS conveys information by graphic
symbolization (points, lines, and polygons), and retains spatial relationships
mathematically through the concept of topology. For example, when you
stand on a hill and look down on a landscape, you can easily identify
intersecting streets and adjacent properties. The mathematical logic, a
computer uses to identify these relationships, is topology.
TOPOLOGY
Topology deals with spatial properties that do not change under specific
transformations:
• The neighborhood relationships between the areas remain, and the
boundary lines have the same start and end nodes.
• The areas are still bounded by the same boundary lines, only the shapes
and lengths of their perimeters have changed.
TOPOLOGY
• Topology can be explained through directed graphs (digraphs), which show the
arrangements of geometric objects and the relationships among objects (Wilson and
Watkins 1990).
• A set of topological primitives are often used to identify these geometric objects with
spatial relationships.
• An edge or arc (used by ArcGIS) is a directed line with a starting point and an ending
point. The end points of an arc are nodes, and intermediate points, if any, are vertices.
• And a face refers to a polygon bounded by arcs. If an arc joins two nodes, the nodes are
said to be adjacent and incident with the arc. Adjacency and incidence are two
fundamental relationships that can be established between nodes and arcs in digraphs
GRAPH THEORY
(ADJACENCY & INCIDENCE)
Adjacency matrix (Tells you if two nodes are connected by an edge)
• 1 = (11,12) one arc joins from node 11 to node 12
• 0 = (12,11) no arc joins from node 12 to node 11
The direction of the arc determines whether 1 or 0 should be assigned
• Incidence matrix (Tells you which edges connect to which nodes)
• 1 = arc is incident from a node
• -1 = arc is incident to a node
• (Arc 1 is incident from node # 13 (thus 1)
and incident to node # 11 (thus -1))
• 0 = arc is not incident from or to a node
TOPOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS
• Topology explicitly defines spatial relationships between connecting or

adjacent features in geographic data. The geometric relationship
between spatial entities and the corresponding attributes are crucial for
spatial analysis and integration in GIS (M. Anji Reddy, 2008). The inclusion
of topology into the data model allows a single line to represent the
shared boundary to denote which side of the line belongs with which
polygon.
Term Definition Example Diagram
Inside Object A is entirely within A park is inside the city, fully A within B
Object B without touching its within, not touching city
boundary borders.
Contains Object B is entirely within The city contains the park, fully B within A
Object A, without touching the enclosing it, without touching
boundary city limits.
Covered Object A is fully within Object B,A lake is covered by a national A
By and may touch its boundary park and might touch the park within/along
boundary. B boundary
Covers Object A fully encloses Object B, The national park covers the B
and B may touch A's boundary lake; the lake may touch the within/along
park boundary. A boundary
Overlaps Objects A and B share some A flood zone overlaps a A and B
space but also have distinct residential area; part of the partially
areas flood zone and residential area overlap
intersect.
Basic principles of topology:

• Adjacency
• Connectivity
• Containment
CONTIGUITY OR ADJACENCY
• Contiguity is the topological concept that

allows the vector data model to determine
adjacency of features share a boundary.
• Areas can be described as being adjacent when they share a common boundary.
• The from-node and the to-node define an arc. Arcs have direction and left and right sides so the
polygons on its left and right sides can be determined.
• In Figure, polygon B is on the left of arc 6, and polygon C is on the right. Thus, polygons B and C
are adjacent. Notice that the label for polygon A is outside the boundary of the area. This
polygon is called the external, or universe, polygon and represents the world outside the study
area. The universe polygon ensures that each arc always has a left and right side.
CONNECTIVITY
• Connectivity is a geometric property used to

describe the linkages between line
features, like road network.
• In the arc-node data structure, arcs connect to each other at nodes and have both a
from-node (i.e., starting node) indicating where the arc begins and a to-node (i.e.,
ending node) indicating where the arc ends. This is called arc-node topology
• In Figure, arcs 1, 2, and 3 all intersect because they share node 11. It is possible to
travel along arc 1 and turn onto arc 3 because they share a common node (11), but it is
not possible to turn directly from arc 1 onto arc 5 because they do not share a common
node
CONTAINMENT
• Containment is an extension of the adjacency that describes area features

which may be wholly contained within another area feature
COMMON TOPOLOGICAL ERRORS IN GIS
GEO-RELATIONAL DATA MODEL
• The geo-relational data model stores geometries and attributes separately in a

split system: geometries (“geo”) in graphic files in a spatial subsystem and
attributes (“relational”) in a relational database Typically, a geo-relational data
model uses the feature identification number (ID) to link the two components.
Types of geo-relational data model
• Coverage (Topological)
• Shapefile (Non-topological)
COVERAGE DATA STRUCTURE
The coverage supports three basic topological relationships

• Connectivity: Arcs connect to each other at nodes.
• Area definition: An area is defined by a series of connected arcs.
• Contiguity: Arcs have directions and left and right polygons
DATA STRUCTURE OF POINT COVERAGE
DATA STRUCTURE OF LINE COVERAGE
DATA STRUCTURE OF POLYGON COVERAGE
SHAPEFILE
The shapefile is a standard nontopological data format used in Esri

products.
• The shapefile treats a point as a pair of x-, y-coordinates
• A line as a series of points
• A polygon as a series of line segments
• No files describe the spatial relationships among these geometric objects
• Polygons actually have duplicate arcs for the shared boundaries and can
overlap one another
SHAPEFILE
Shapefiles have two main advantages:

• They can display more rapidly on the computer monitor than topology-
based data.
• They are nonproprietary and interoperable, meaning that they can be
used across different software packages (e.g., MapInfo can use shapefiles
and ArcGIS can use MapInfo Interchange Format files).
SHAPEFILE
• SHP is a mandatory Esri file that gives features their geometry.

Every shapefile has its own .shp file that represents spatial vector
data.
• SHX are mandatory Esri and AutoCAD shape index positions. This
type of file is used to search forward and backward.
• DBF is a standard database file used to store attribute data and
object IDs. A .dbf file is mandatory for shape files.
• XML file types contain the metadata associated with the shapefile.
• SBN files are optional spatial index files that optimize spatial
queries. This file type is saved together with a .sbx file
• SBX files are similar to .sbn files which speed up loading times. It
works with .sbn files to optimize spatial queries
OBJECT-BASED DATA MODEL
The object based data model treats spatial data as objects. It differs from the georelational data model in two
important aspects
• The object based data model stores both the spatial and attribute data of spatial features in a single system
• The object based data model allows a spatial feature (object) to be associated with a set of properties and
methods
The object-based data model stores each land-use polygon in a record. The
Shape field stores the geometries of land-use polygons. Other fields store
attribute data such as Landuse_ID and Category.
OBJECT BASED DATA MODELS
(CLASSES AND CLASS RELATIONSHIP)
If almost everything in GIS can be represented as an object, how are these objects
managed? A simple answer is that they are managed by class and class relationship.
❑ A class is a set of objects with similar characteristics
❑ Class relationships include the following
1) Inheritance
2) Aggregation
3) Composition
4) Association
Inheritance: A hierarchical relationship between a superclass and one or more subclasses, where
subclasses inherit properties and methods from the superclass.
Example: A Water Body class could have attributes like area and depth.
A River class inherits from Water Body but adds its own attributes, such as flow rate and length.
Water Body
Area Depth
River Pond
Area Depth length Area Depth Perimeter
Association is a relationship between two classes, indicating how objects (instances) of one class
are related to or connected with objects of another class.
Example: Schools and Roads
Classes:
School: Represents schools in a city.
Road: Represents roads in a city.
✓School objects store information about the nearby roads that provide access to the school.
✓Road objects store information about the schools that they connect.
Aggregation is a "whole-part" relationship, where one class (the whole) is composed of multiple
objects of another class (the parts). However, the parts can exist independently of the whole.
Example: A City class might aggregate Park, Building, and Road classes. A city is composed of
multiple parks, buildings, and roads, but the parks and buildings can exist independently of the
city.
Composition describes a type of association in which the parts cannot exist independently from
the whole.
Example: A Forest class might be composed of a Tree class. If the forest is removed (e.g., by
deforestation), the individual trees that make up the forest are also removed.
Thank you

Vector Data Model

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VECTOR DATA MODEL

REPRESENTATION OF SPATIAL FEATURES

• Real-world objects are represented as a point, a line and a polygon

• A point has zero dimension and has only the property of

• A line is one-dimensional and has the property of

• A polygon is two-dimensional and has the properties of area

Topology is the branch of mathematics used to define spatial relationships

• Topology explicitly defines spatial relationships between connecting or

Basic principles of topology:

• Contiguity is the topological concept that

• Connectivity is a geometric property used to

• Containment is an extension of the adjacency that describes area features

• The geo-relational data model stores geometries and attributes separately in a

The coverage supports three basic topological relationships

The shapefile is a standard nontopological data format used in Esri

Shapefiles have two main advantages:

• SHP is a mandatory Esri file that gives features their geometry.

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