Literature Survey- TDT 4150 GIS Databases: An Overview

This literature survey covers the area of GIS databases, an overview of work done in the field is presented as a summary. Definitions of GIS, Geographical Information System, is presented. How the geographical data used in such systems are stored and managed in spatial databases, and the more specific term GIS database, are inspected in more detail, along with the definition of what a GIS database is and how it differs from spatial databases. A historical overview and motivation for the research is given. The requirements for such a database is presented, focusing on such areas as spatial data types and the combination of spatial and alphanumerical data. The problems of modelling geographical data, with focus on tesseral and vector models, as well as the concepts point, line and region and two methods of modelling and implementing these (simplices and realm). An algebra for spatial data types (the ROSE algebra) is presented as an example of ho