What is a spatial database system? How is it different from a RDBMS?

Spatial Database
Applications
 GIS applications (maps):

Urban planning, route optimization, fire or
pollution monitoring, utility networks, etc
 Other applications:

VLSI design, CAD/CAM, model of human
brain, etc
 Traditional applications:

Multidimensional records

What is a Spatial Database?
 A SDBMS is a DBMS
 It offers spatial data types/data models/
query language
 Support spatial properties/operations
 It supports spatial data types in its
implementation
 Support spatial indexing, algorithms for
spatial selection and join

Spatial Representation
 Raster model:
 Vector model:

Spatial data types
 Point : 2 real numbers
 Line : sequence of points
 Region : area included inside n-points
point
line
region

Spatial Relationships
 Topological relationships:
 adjacent, inside, disjoint, etc
 Direction relationships:
 Above, below, north_of, etc
 Metric relationships:
 “distance < 100”
 And operations to express the
relationships

Models, Algebras,
Languages
 Extent relational model, or use
Object-relational model: define new
ADTs
 Spatial algebra: ex. ROSE algebra
 Query languages:
 Extend SQL : GEOQL, PSQL
 New graphical languages: GEO-SAL

Examples
 A database:
 Relation states(sname: string, area: region, spop: int)
 Relation cities(cname: string, center: point; ext: region)
 Relation rivers(rname: string, route:line)
 SELECT * FROM rivers WHERE route intersects R
 SELECT cname, sname FROM cities, states WHERE
center inside area
 SELECT rname, length(intersection(route,
California)) FROM rivers WHERE route intersects
California

Spatial Queries
 Selection queries: “Find all objects inside
query q”, inside-> intersects, north
 Nearest Neighbor-queries: “Find the
closets object to a query point q”, k-
closest objects
 Spatial join queries: Two spatial relations S1 and
S2, find all pairs: {x in S1, y in S2, and x rel y= true},
rel= intersect, inside, etc

Access Methods
 Point Access Methods (PAMs):
 Index methods for 2 or 3-dimensional
points (k-d trees, Z-ordering, grid-file)
 Spatial Access Methods (SAMs):
 Index methods for 2 or 3-dimensional
regions and points (R-trees)

Indexing using SAMs
 Approximate each region with a
simple shape: usually Minimum
Bounding Rectangle (MBR) = [(x1, x2), (y1,
y2)]
x1 x2
y1
y2

Indexing using SAMs (cont.)
Two steps:
 Filtering step: Find all the MBRs
(using the SAM) that satisfy the query
 Refinement step:For each qualified
MBR, check the original object
against the query

Spatial Indexing
 Point Access Methods (PAMs) vs Spatial
Access Methods (SAMs)
 PAM: index only point data
 Hierarchical (tree-based) structures
 Multidimensional Hashing
 Space filling curve
 SAM: index both points and regions
 Transformations
 Overlapping regions
 Clipping methods

What is a spatial database system? How is it different from a RDBMS?

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