An Efficient Map Overlay Algorithm Based on Spatial Access Methods and Computational Geometry

Geographic database systems, known as geographic information systems (GISs) particularly among noncomputer scientists, are one of the most important applications of the very active research area named spatial database systems. Additionally to other spatial database systems where query and manipulation processing are emphasized, the most important purpose of a GIS is to analyze geographical data. The basic building block for analysis operations in GIS is the operation map overlay. However, available map overlay algorithms suffer from poor performance. In this paper, we present an efficient map overlay algorithm using as ingredients spatial access methods and state-of-the-art computational geometry concepts. An experimental performance analysis of our implemented map overlay algorithm demonstrates the fruitfulness of the marriage of spatial access methods with computational geometry methods for improving the efficiency of GISs. The possibility of coupling these two areas is based on the fact that both use spatial order relations in order to increase the performance of query processing.