Developing a DBMS for Geographic Information: A Review

A summary of the development of a database for a geographic information system. The commonly described disadvantages of the relational model (fixed length fields and an excess of tables) were overcome in a variety of ways, allowing the retention of the advantages of the model. The Binary Data Model (BDM) was used to define the system specifications. A software tool was developed to convert the BDM specification into tables in a relational model and into an object oriented interface to the relational database. A small, dedicated development team followed a strict development cycle, resulting in all major milestones being met. One of the main themes in this paper is the handling of complex (spatial) data that does not obviously suit the relational model