GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM AND

DATABASES
ENVS 305: WEEK 6
Dr. V. L. Basupi
BIUST
DEPT. OF EARTH &
ENV. SCIENCES
What you learnt so far!!!!!!
• LECTURE 1 & 2

• Basic concepts – definition of GIS

• Its functions and purpose
• Data as a component of GIS – spatial data
• Attribute data
• Spatial data visualisation – The Map
 LECTURE 3
• Spatial Data Representation
• Representing geographic phenomena
• Field representation of geographic
phenomena
• Object representation of geographic
phenomena
• Continuous versus discrete data
LECTURE 4: DATA MODEL AND DATA STRUCTURE
• Raster data model
• features represented in grid,
pixels or cells

• Vector data model

• Representing features in a vector
model (Vector data format)
• Points, Line and Polygons
 LECTURE 6
• Measuring the earth
• Spatial referencing
• Coordinate systems
• Datum
• Map projections and properties
DATABASE MANAGEMENT
TODAY’S OUTLINE

• Spatial data management systems

• Designing and implementing a database

• Relational databases

• ESRI Geodatabase
DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DBMS)
• Introduces the methods available for handling spatial data
in GIS
• The real world is too complex for our immediate and
direct understanding
• We create models of reality that are intended to have some
similarity with selected aspects of the real world
• databases are created from these "models" as a
fundamental step in coming to know the nature and status
of that reality
 Characteristics of a DBMS
• System should be designed for easy maintenance.
• Systems should allow interactive access to data to obtain new
information without writing fresh programs.
• System should be designed to co-relate different data to meet new
requirements.
• An independent central repository, which gives information and
meaning of available data is required.
• Integrated database will help in understanding the inter-
relationships between data stored in different applications.
• The stored data should be made available for access by different
users simultaneously.
• Automatic recovery feature has to be provided to overcome the
problems with processing system failure.
Stages in Database Design
❑CONCEPTUAL
• Describes and defines included entities
• Identify how entities will be represented in the database
• Selection of spatial objects: points, lines, areas, raster cells
• Requires decisions about how world dimensionality will be
represented
Eg should a building be represented as area or points
❑LOGICAL

• Sets out the logical structure of the database elements, determined by

the database system used by the software
❑ PHYSICAL
• Both hardware and software specific
• Requires consideration of how files will be structured for access
from the disc
WHAT IS A SPATIAL DATA BASE?
• It is a collection of spatial referenced data that acts as
a model of reality

• A database is a model of reality in the sense that the

database represents a selected set of approximation of
phenomena

• The selected phenomena are deemed important

enough to represent in digital form
SPATIAL DATABSE CONTENTS
• Depend on organisation’s need
• Eg, wildlife and forestry departments both
need information on vegetation but the
details needed are different

• Other examples of databases

• Transportation
• Land management information system
• Poverty mapping
• Soil or rock types
• Voter registration
• BIUST students information
Example's of databases

• Spatial data – Constituencies

- Polling stations

• Attribute data – Voter’s roll

- Voter’s name, gender,
age, address etc
 Land information system database
• For cadastral and land use mapping, used by government; Department
of Surveys and Mapping, Department of Lands, Town and Country
Planning, Councils and land boards
• Consists of land records and associated attributes data as well as
spatial information
• Land records; land use, ownership, environmental impact, fiscal data
• Legal boundaries of land tenure
• Make easy to retrieve, create, update, store, view, analyse and publish
land information
Botswana National conservation areas database
High paying low volume tourism database
• rrrr
Transportation database PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION
PLANNING
Geology and soils database
 OVERVIEW OF ATTRIBUTE TABLES
• A table is a data structure for storing multiple attributes about location or an object
• It is composed of rows called records, and columns, called fields or attribute fields
• In ArcGIS, tabular data files fall into two main categories: attribute tables and stand alone
tables
• An attribute table contains information about features in a geographic data set.
• the file stores both the attributes and the x, y coordinates in the same data file, although the
coordinates are not visible in the table, and it uses an Object ID, or OID, instead of an FID.
• In contrast a standalone table simply contains information about one or more objects in
tabular format instead of having information map features. a standalone table might come
from a text file, an excel spreadsheet , global positioning system, data file or a database.
• standalone tables exist independently of a geographic data set and maybe only incidentally
related to map features. they also have an OID rather than FID.
 Field types
• Unlike a spreadsheet, in which any cell can contain any type of data, a database field
(column)must contain only one type of data, perhaps text, perhaps integers, but never
both.
• Each field must be defined, and the type of its contents must be specified, before any data
are entered.
• Furthermore, once a field definition is set, it can not be changed. The most common field
types are numbers, text, dates, and Boolean fields
• A field [STREETNAME] would be a text field because street names contain letters. The
field length defines how many characters can be stored in the name. if the
[STREETNAME] field is given a length of 10, then any name longer than 10 characters
will be truncated to the first 10 letters. Thus, “Elm Street” fits perfectly (including the
space), but “Maple Street” would be truncated to “Maple Stre” to fit in the field. It is
important to ensure enough space in the fields to hold the longest likely value.
• Numeric fields have different parameters. When defining a numeric field, the user may
designate a storage width (precision) and the number of decimal places (scale).
Field type Storage range Size (Bytes) Applications

Short integer - 32, 768 to 32, 767 2 Numeric values without fractional values
within specific range; coded values

Long interger -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 4 Numeric values without fractional values

within specific range

Float Approximately -3.4E38 to 1.2E38 4 Numeric values with fractional values within
specific range
Double Approximately -2.2E308 to 1.8E308 8 Numeric values with fractional values within
specific range

Text Alphanumeric strings - e.g. Okavango delta

John A Smith

Date Date/time format for calendar dates - e.g. 21/02/1990

and times 22:56:05
BLOB Binary large objects any complex - -
binary data including images,
documents etc
 Relational database
• A table/relational database has multiple tables stored as files.
• However the relationships are not defined ahead of time instead the user
temporarily associate two tables if they share a common field.
• This association is called a join, and the common field becomes the key.
• This database model is extremely flexible is the preferred choice for GIS system. It
is called a relational database management system (DBMS) or RDBMS
• Because GIS data are intimately linked to a database structure, you can incorporate
tables from database programs into GIS analysis.
• Arc GIS has capability for connecting to and working with DBMS directly,
expanding the type of data available.
• If the department of revenue services keep its income tax records in DBMS such as
Oracle, for example, a GIS analyst can bring the database table to ArcMap as a
standalone table.
Joining and relating tables
• In an RDBMS and in a GIS tables are commonly combined using a join, in order to bring sets of
information together.
• The tables are combined using a common field called a key.
• The key field must be of the same type in both data tables. When a join is performed the two
separate tables becomes one and contain information from both tables.
• The table containing the information to be appended is called the source table.
• The table that receives the appended information is called the destination table. Often joins are
used to bring data from standalone tables into an attribute table for mapping or analysis.
• The join is a temporary relationship and it can be removed when it is no longer needed. Joins
have a direction.
• Join direction matters. Assuming you have information about districts and population in
Botswana and you join this to the table of the districts shape file then the information can be used
to make a map of the population data. If however the join has been performed in the opposite
direction with the population as the destination and the districts as the source then the resulting
table will be a standalone table. In this case a map showing the demographics could not be made
because the demographic table is not a feature class.
Joining tables in ArcGIS using the common field – the key
 Cardinality
• The numeric relationship between the objects in one table and
their matches in the other
• The simplest kind of relationship is one – to – one, in which
each record in the destination table matches record in the source
table
• One – to – many, each record in destination table could match
more than one record in the source table
• Many – to – one relationship, many records in the destination
table would match a single record in the source table
• Many – to – many relationship indicates that multiple records
can appear in both tables
LAB 4: Spatial database management and data
preparation
▪Creating spatial and attribute
data
▪Creating a spreadsheet e.g.
using MS Excel and
importing data into ArcGIS
▪Joining and relating tables