Geodatabase
Encyclopedia
A geodatabase is a spatial database
designed to store, query, and manipulate geographic information and spatial data of low dimensionality. It is a specialized type of spatial database
often with optimizations for 2 and 3 dimensions, raster data and Euclidean distance.
Within a spatial database, spatial data is treated as any other data type. Vector data
can be stored as point, line or polygon data types, and may have an associated spatial reference system
. A geodatabase record can use a geometry data type to represent the location of an object in the physical world and other standard database data types to store the object's associated attributes. Some geodatabases, such as Rasterlite and those used by ESRI
in their ArcGIS software, also include support for storing raster data
.
Many geodatabases have custom functions that allow the spatial data to be manipulated and queried
using SQL
, for example to find all the residents of an area within an exposure zone for a potential environmental hazard. However the spatial data in some geodatabases can only be accessed by using specialized client software.
Within a geographic information system
(GIS) a spatial database is one component that can be used to store and manipulate data. Typically a complete system will also include client software to view and edit the data stored within the database. Like other spatial data formats geodatabases can also be used to serve data directly to web map server software, such as ESRI's ArcGIS Internet Map Server
, MapServer
and Google's mapping API. The term GIS-Centric, however, has been specifically defined as the use of the Esri
ArcGIS geodatabase as the asset/feature data repository central to Computerized Maintenance Management System
(CMMS) as a part of Enterprise Asset Management
and analytical software systems. GIS-centric certification criteria has been specifically defined by NAGCS, the National Association of GIS-Centric Solutions. http://www.nagcs.org/index.asp
The primary advantage of spatial databases, over file-based data storage, is that they let a GIS build on the existing capabilities of relational database management system
s (RDBMS). This includes support for SQL
and the ability to generate complex geospatial queries
. Also, a database's client/server architecture supports multiple users simultaneously and lets them view, edit, and query the database without conflict.
.
The early implementations to store both spatial and attribute data in a database used middleware
to store spatial data using a traditional datatype such as BLOB, to implement spatial indexing and to provide a spatial-query interface to applications. The IBM Geographic Database System (GDBS) in the mid-1980s used the IBM IMS hierarchical database and the IBM GeoManager in 1990 used the IBM DB2
relational database management system
.
An early development in storing spatial data in a modified relational database management system
resulted in a modified Oracle v.4 during the late 1980s and early 1990s; this eventually led to the productizing of Oracle Spatial
.
In the late 1990s Object-relational database
s (ORDBMS) allowed for adding geometry types to additional databases. Some ORDBMSs were also extended with custom functions for the processing of spatial data using SQL
. R-tree
indexes allow efficient querying of such spatial data.
, IBM DB2
, Microsoft Access
, PostgreSQL
, Microsoft SQL Server
, MySQL
, SQLite
and Oracle
. It can be manipulated using extensions such as IBM DB2 Spatial Extender
, Oracle Spatial
, PostGIS
, Intergraph's GeoMedia
, SpatiaLite
, ESRI's ArcGIS
or ArcSDE
and Informix Spatial DataBlade
.
Spatial Database
A spatial database is a database that is optimized to store and query data that is related to objects in space, including points, lines and polygons. While typical databases can understand various numeric and character types of data, additional functionality needs to be added for databases to...
designed to store, query, and manipulate geographic information and spatial data of low dimensionality. It is a specialized type of spatial database
Spatial Database
A spatial database is a database that is optimized to store and query data that is related to objects in space, including points, lines and polygons. While typical databases can understand various numeric and character types of data, additional functionality needs to be added for databases to...
often with optimizations for 2 and 3 dimensions, raster data and Euclidean distance.
Within a spatial database, spatial data is treated as any other data type. Vector data
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
can be stored as point, line or polygon data types, and may have an associated spatial reference system
Map projection
A map projection is any method of representing the surface of a sphere or other three-dimensional body on a plane. Map projections are necessary for creating maps. All map projections distort the surface in some fashion...
. A geodatabase record can use a geometry data type to represent the location of an object in the physical world and other standard database data types to store the object's associated attributes. Some geodatabases, such as Rasterlite and those used by ESRI
ESRI
Esri is a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System software and geodatabase management applications. The headquarters of Esri is in Redlands, California....
in their ArcGIS software, also include support for storing raster data
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
.
Many geodatabases have custom functions that allow the spatial data to be manipulated and queried
Spatial query
A spatial query is a special type of database query supported by geodatabases and spatial databases. The queries differ from SQL queries in several important ways...
using SQL
SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
, for example to find all the residents of an area within an exposure zone for a potential environmental hazard. However the spatial data in some geodatabases can only be accessed by using specialized client software.
Within a geographic information system
Geographic Information System
A geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
(GIS) a spatial database is one component that can be used to store and manipulate data. Typically a complete system will also include client software to view and edit the data stored within the database. Like other spatial data formats geodatabases can also be used to serve data directly to web map server software, such as ESRI's ArcGIS Internet Map Server
Internet Map Server
Internet Map Server provide maps through the Internet usually as images. One standard specification for such a server is the OGC Web Map Service....
, MapServer
MapServer
MapServer is an open source development environment for building spatially-enabled internet applications. It can run as a CGI program or via MapScript which supports several programming languages . MapServer was developed by the University of Minnesota — so, it is often and more specifically...
and Google's mapping API. The term GIS-Centric, however, has been specifically defined as the use of the Esri
ESRI
Esri is a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System software and geodatabase management applications. The headquarters of Esri is in Redlands, California....
ArcGIS geodatabase as the asset/feature data repository central to Computerized Maintenance Management System
Computerized Maintenance Management System
Computerized maintenance management system is also known as enterprise asset management and computerized maintenance management information system ....
(CMMS) as a part of Enterprise Asset Management
Enterprise Asset Management
Enterprise asset management means the whole life optimal management of the physical assets of an organization to maximize value. It covers such things as the design, construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance and decommissioning/replacement of plant, equipment and facilities...
and analytical software systems. GIS-centric certification criteria has been specifically defined by NAGCS, the National Association of GIS-Centric Solutions. http://www.nagcs.org/index.asp
The primary advantage of spatial databases, over file-based data storage, is that they let a GIS build on the existing capabilities of relational database management system
Relational database management system
A relational database management system is a database management system that is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd. Most popular databases currently in use are based on the relational database model....
s (RDBMS). This includes support for SQL
SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
and the ability to generate complex geospatial queries
Spatial query
A spatial query is a special type of database query supported by geodatabases and spatial databases. The queries differ from SQL queries in several important ways...
. Also, a database's client/server architecture supports multiple users simultaneously and lets them view, edit, and query the database without conflict.
History
Early GIS systems separated spatial data from attribute data and linked related records through a common identifier. Using specialized file-structures (such as node/chain) for handling spatial data was necessary for efficient storage and processing. Attribute data was commonly in a file or RDBMS. Examples of this architectures are the Arc/Info coverage and ShapefileShapefile
The Esri Shapefile or simply a shapefile is a popular geospatial vector data format for geographic information systems software. It is developed and regulated by Esri as a open specification for data interoperability among Esri and other software products.Shapefiles spatially describe geometries:...
.
The early implementations to store both spatial and attribute data in a database used middleware
Middleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
to store spatial data using a traditional datatype such as BLOB, to implement spatial indexing and to provide a spatial-query interface to applications. The IBM Geographic Database System (GDBS) in the mid-1980s used the IBM IMS hierarchical database and the IBM GeoManager in 1990 used the IBM DB2
IBM DB2
The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...
relational database management system
Relational database management system
A relational database management system is a database management system that is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd. Most popular databases currently in use are based on the relational database model....
.
An early development in storing spatial data in a modified relational database management system
Relational database management system
A relational database management system is a database management system that is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd. Most popular databases currently in use are based on the relational database model....
resulted in a modified Oracle v.4 during the late 1980s and early 1990s; this eventually led to the productizing of Oracle Spatial
Oracle Spatial
Oracle Spatial forms a separately-licensed option component of the Oracle Database. Oracle Spatial aids users in managing geographic and location-data in a native type within an Oracle database, potentially supporting a wide range of applications — from automated mapping/facilities-management and...
.
In the late 1990s Object-relational database
Object-relational database
An object-relational database , or object-relational database management system , is a database management system similar to a relational database, but with an object-oriented database model: objects, classes and inheritance are directly supported in database schemas and in the query language...
s (ORDBMS) allowed for adding geometry types to additional databases. Some ORDBMSs were also extended with custom functions for the processing of spatial data using SQL
SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
. R-tree
R-tree
R-trees are tree data structures used for spatial access methods, i.e., for indexing multi-dimensional information such as geographical coordinates, rectangles or polygons. The R-tree was proposed by Antonin Guttman in 1984 and has found significant use in both research and real-world applications...
indexes allow efficient querying of such spatial data.
Implementations
By the mid-2000s, a variety of commercial and open source database management systems had the ability to store geospatial data, including Boeing/Sybase Spatial Query ServerSpatial Query Server
The Boeing Company's Spatial Query Server is a commercially available product which enables a Sybase database to contain spatial features.-Geometric Types:*Circle*Ellipse*Point - a point in 2D space. plane.*Voxel - a point in 3D space...
, IBM DB2
IBM DB2
The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...
, Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of...
, PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
, Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
, MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
, SQLite
SQLite
SQLite is an ACID-compliant embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small C programming library. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain and implements most of the SQL standard...
and Oracle
Oracle database
The Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....
. It can be manipulated using extensions such as IBM DB2 Spatial Extender
IBM DB2
The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...
, Oracle Spatial
Oracle Spatial
Oracle Spatial forms a separately-licensed option component of the Oracle Database. Oracle Spatial aids users in managing geographic and location-data in a native type within an Oracle database, potentially supporting a wide range of applications — from automated mapping/facilities-management and...
, PostGIS
PostGIS
PostGIS is an open source software program that adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. PostGIS follows the Simple Features for SQL specification from the Open Geospatial Consortium .-Features:...
, Intergraph's GeoMedia
GeoMedia
GeoMedia is the technology, suite of software components in Intergraph Corporation's geographic information system and family of software products that include: GeoMedia Objects, GeoMedia Viewer , GeoMedia, GeoMedia Professional, GeoMedia WebMap, GeoMedia WebMap Professional and others...
, SpatiaLite
Spatialite
SpatiaLite is a spatial extension to SQLite, providing vector geodatabase functionality. It is similar to PostGIS, Oracle Spatial, and SQL Server with spatial extensions, although SQLite/SpatiaLite aren't based on client-server architecture: they adopt a simpler personal architecture. i.e...
, ESRI's ArcGIS
ArcGIS
ArcGIS is a suite consisting of a group of geographic information system software products produced by Esri.ArcGIS is a system for working with maps and geographic information...
or ArcSDE
ArcSDE
ArcSDE is a server-software sub-system that aims to enable the usage of Relational Database Management Systems for spatial data...
and Informix Spatial DataBlade
Informix
IBM Informix is a family of relational database management system developed by IBM. It is positioned as IBM's flagship data server for online transaction processing as well as integrated solutions...
.
See also
- Spatial querySpatial queryA spatial query is a special type of database query supported by geodatabases and spatial databases. The queries differ from SQL queries in several important ways...
- Geographic information systemGeographic Information SystemA geographic information system, geographical information science, or geospatial information studies is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographically referenced data...
- Comparison of GIS softwareComparison of GIS softwareThis is a comparison of notable GIS software. To be included on this list, the software must either have a linked existing article or include references to independent sources verifying notability.-License, source, & operating system support:-Map servers:...
- List of GIS Software
Further reading
- ESRI Press.Modeling Our World: The ESRI Guide to Geodatabase Design
- Apress.Pro Oracle Spatial, 2004, Springer-Verlag, Ravi Kothuri, Albert Godfrind, and Euro Beinat.
- Designing Geodatabases: Case Studies in GIS Data Modeling , 2005 Ben Franklin Award winner, PMA, The Independent Book Publishers Association.
- Rigaux, P., Scholl, M., and Voisard, A. (2002) Spatial Databases: with application to GIS. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
- OGC Simple Features Specification for SQL - Open Geospatial ConsortiumOpen Geospatial ConsortiumThe Open Geospatial Consortium , an international voluntary consensus standards organization, originated in 1994. In the OGC, more than 400 commercial, governmental, nonprofit and research organizations worldwide collaborate in a consensus process encouraging development and implementation of open...
standard for types and functions in a spatial database.