In spatial database systems rectangles are commonly used to approximate real spatial data. A technique that approximates extended objects with a collection of rectangles is the z-ordering method. Since each of these rectangles eventually corresponds to an entry in a spatial index, the object may be refer-enced several times. This redundancy eeect is controllable. In this paper, we present an em...

Numerous applications involve the use of a Geographical Information System (GIS). A working session consists of several spatial database orders. The scope of this paper is to provide a link between alphanumeric data and spatial representation of objects stored in a GIS database. The notions of Granule, Topology and Set_relationship are defined to guarantee a semantics to alphanumeric data parts...

This chapter covers the fundamentals of spatial database analysis and design, It begins by defining the most important concepts: ‘spatial database’, ‘analysis’, ‘design’, and ‘model’; and continues with a presentation of the rationale supporting the use of formal methods for analysis and design. The basic elements and approaches of such methods are described, in addition to the processes used. ...

Efficient tools are needed to identify routes and schedules to evacuate affected populations to safety in face of natural disasters or terrorist attacks. Challenges arise due to violation of key assumptions (e.g. stationary ranking of alternative routes, Wardrop equilibrium) behind popular shortest path algorithms (e.g. Dijkstra’s, A*) and microscopic traffic simulators (e.g. DYNASMART). Time-e...

Geographic information systems manage a large volume of spatial data. We often use it to solve some problems such as urban planning and land use management. Interoperability of GIS is the ability to access spatial data and associated services in a distributed and heterogeneous processing environment. There are many existing spatial databases and GIS applications that are built on those database...

Many geographical applications have to deal with spatial objects that reveal an intrinsically vague or fuzzy nature. A spatial object is fuzzy if locations exist that cannot be assigned completely to the object or to its complement. Spatial database systems and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are currently unable to cope with this kind of data. Based on an available abstract data model o...

With the rapid progress of spatial information services and ubiquitous computing technologies, the space that we are dealing with is no longer limited to outdoor space but being extended to indoor space. Indoor space differs from outdoor space, which makes it difficult to realize spatial information services for indoor space. In order to extend the scope of spatial information services to indoo...

Spatial data has now been used extensively in the Web environment, providing online customized maps and supporting map-based applications. The full potential of Web-based spatial applications, however, has yet to be achieved due to performance issues related to the large sizes and high complexity of spatial data. In this paper, we introduce a multiresolution approach to spatial data management ...

Vendors of database software are adding spatial capabilities to their products. This paper compares the spatial data types and the spatial relations which are recognized by a set of current commercial RDBMS and layered spatial database management packages. While there is convergence on the notion that databases should handle spatial information, there are both gross and subtle differences in wh...