A Framework for Modeling Uncertainty in Spatial Databases

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial databases are inherently suited for fuzziness, because of the uncertainty inherent in the assimilation, storage, and representation of spatial data. These objects may also have naturally occurring imprecise boundaries. It is difficult to store and represent these objects while continuing to demonstrate the uncertainty inherent in the objects. This paper describes a fuzzy object-oriented framework to model spatial objects with either precise or uncertain boundaries that will also provide for fuzzy querying of these objects. We also discuss a prototype system, FOOSBALL, which implements this framework.