Lecture 11

Spatial Relationships and Topology

GIS AND REMOTE SENSING

Hemalie Nandalal
 Introduction
• A GIS integrates information about various types of
geographic and non-geographic entities, many of which
can be related.
• Geographic entities can relate to other geographic
entities. For example, a building can be associated with
a parcel.
• Geographic entities can relate to non-geographic
entities. For example, a parcel of land can be
associated with an owner.
• Non-geographic entities can relate to other non-
geographic entities. For example, a parcel owner can
be assigned a tax code.
 Out line
 Relationships between GIS objects
 Spatial relationships
 Relationships as attributes
 Object pairs
 GIS topology
 What is GIS topology
 Importance of GIS topology
 Topology and GIS analysis
 Spatial relationships
 Point-point
 "is within", e.g. find all of the customer
points within 1 km of this retail store point
 "is nearest to", e.g. find the hazardous
waste site which is nearest to this
groundwater well
 Eg.
Point distance
 Spatial relationships
 Point-line
 "ends at", e.g. find the intersection at the
end of this street
 "is nearest to", e.g. find the road nearest to
this aircraft crash site
Eg. Near(Analysis)
 Spatial relationships
 Point-area
 "is contained in", e.g. find all of the
customers located in this ZIP code boundary
 "can be seen from", e.g. determine if any of
this lake can be seen from this viewpoint
Eg. Using Select By Location
 Spatial relationships
 Line-line
 "crosses", e.g. determine if this road
crosses this river
 "comes within", e.g. find all of the roads
which come within 1 km of this railroad
 "flows into", e.g. find out if this stream
flows into this river
 Spatial relationships
 Line-area
 "crosses", e.g. find all of the soil types
crossed by this railroad
 "borders", e.g. find out if this road forms
part of the boundary of this airfield
 Eg.
Overlay- intersect
 Spatial relationships
 Area-area.
 "overlaps", e.g. identify all overlaps between types
of soil on this map and types of land use on this
other map
 "is nearest to", e.g. find the nearest lake to this
forest fire
 "is adjacent to", e.g. find out if these two areas
share a common boundary
 Eg.
Overlay tools
 Out line
 Relationships between GIS objects
 Spatial relationships
 Relationships as attributes
 Object pairs
 GIS topology
 What is GIS topology
 Importance of GIS topology
 Topology and GIS analysis
 Relationships as attributes
One of the selection methods you can use to
select features in a layer is to select features
using an attribute query. This is performed
using the Select By Attributes tool
 Out line
 Relationships between GIS objects
 Spatial relationships
 Relationships as attributes
 Object pairs
 GIS topology
 What is GIS topology
 Importance of GIS topology
 Topology and GIS analysis
 Object pairs
• distance is an attribute of a pair of objects
• there are other types of information which are similarly
attributes of pairs of objects
– e.g. flow of commuters between a suburb and downtown
– e.g. trade between two countries
– e.g. flow of groundwater between a sink and a spring
• in some cases these attributes can be attached to an
object linking the origin and destination objects
– e.g. on a map, trade can be an attribute of an arrow
connecting the two countries
• thick arrows indicate strong trade
– however, such maps quickly become impossibly complex
 Out line
 Relationships between GIS objects
 Spatial relationships
 Relationships as attributes
 Object pairs
 GIS topology
 What is GIS topology
 Importance of GIS topology
 Topology and GIS analysis
 The definition of topology
• Topology is a term used around GIS that is
sometimes confused with the term
“topography”.
• The meanings of the two terms are quite
unique.
• Topography refers to the study and depiction
of physical features in the landscape.
• Topology used to describe the relationships
between objects.
 The definition of topology
Strict definition of "topological"
• if a map is stretched and distorted, some of its properties
change, including:
– distances
– angles
– relative proximities
• other properties remain constant, including:
– adjacencies
– most other relationships, such as "is contained in", "crosses"
– types of spatial objects - areas remain areas, lines remain lines,
points remain points
• strictly, topological properties are those which remain
unchanged after distortion
 Topological Vector Model
Topology: the “science and mathematics of relationships
in a GIS” or “the study of geometric properties”
Topological vector models explicitly record topological
relationships
There are four kinds of topological relationships…
– Adjacency – which polygons are next to which?
– Connectivity – which lines connect to which?
– Containment – which features are within another feature
(e.g., “island polygons” -- an island within a lake)
– Coincidence - which occupy the same space?
 Usage of "topological" in GIS
A spatial database is often called "topological" if one or
more of the following relationships have been
computed and stored
– connectedness of links at intersections
– ordered set of lines (chains) forming each polygon
boundary
– adjacency relationships between areas
unfortunately the precise meaning of the term has
become distorted by use in general, "topological"
implies that certain relationships are stored, making
the data more useful for various kinds of spatial
analysis
 Usage of "topological" in GIS
By contrast, a database is called "cartographic" if the above
conditions are absent
– objects can be manipulated individually
– relationships between them are unavailable or are considered
unimportant
Cartographic databases are less useful for analysis of spatial
data
– however they are satisfactory for simple mapping of data
– many packages designed for mapping only use cartographic
database models
– a cartographic database can usually be converted to a
topological database by computing relationships - the process of
"building topology" through planar enforcement
 Usage of "topological" in GIS
In cases like soil type, the objects used to describe
spatial variation must obey certain simple rules
– e.g. two areas cannot overlap
– e.g. every place must be within exactly one area, or on
a boundary
These rules are collectively referred to as planar
enforcement
– a set of objects obeying these rules is said to be planar
enforced
Planar enforcement is a very important operation in
a vector GIS
 Topological Data Model

Topological relationships are built from simple

elements into more complex elements:

– Nodes define line segments

– Line segments connect to define lines

– Lines define polygons

 Area Representations

• A simple but primitive

representation of area
features would be to list for
each polygon the lines that
describes its boundary. This is
called a polygon-by-polygon
representation.

• Each line in the list would be a

sequence that starts with a
Total boundary of the polygon node and ends with one.
Area Representations
• The reason why this is not a good
representation is called data
redundancy.

• This means that shared

boundaries between polygons are
stored double.

• Another disadvantage of such a

polygon-by-polygon
representation is that if we want
to identify the polygons that
border each other – this is a
difficult search analysis.
Boundary or Topological Data Model

• The boundary model or

topological data model is
an improved
representation of the
polygon-by-polygon
model.

• It stores parts of a
polygon’s boundary as
separate line segments.
Boundary or Topological Data Model
It also indicates which
polygon is on the left
and which is on the
right of each arc
Boundary or Topological Data Model
We can determine the left and the
right polygon, because the line
segment has a direction.
The direction of the line segment is
from the “From Node” to the
“To Node”
 Rules of Topology
• Every line must be bounded by two nodes
• Every line borders two polygons
• Every polygon has a closed boundary consisting
of an alternating sequence of nodes and lines
• Around every node exists and alternating
sequence of line and polygon
• Every line only intersect at their nodes
 Topology rules
The following list shows some examples of where
topology rules can be defined for real world
features in a vector map.
– Area edges of a municipality map must not overlap.
– Area edges of a municipality map must not have gaps
(slivers).
– Polygons showing property boundaries must be
closed. Undershoots or overshoots of the border lines
are not allowed.
– Contour lines in a vector line layer must not intersect
(cross each other).
 Topology rules
• Topology expresses the spatial relationships
between connecting or adjacent vector
features (points, polylines and polygons) in a
GIS.
Over
Slivers
Under shoots
shoots
 Applying Topology in GIS
Topology is, in ArcGIS as it is and its data formats, the only effective
way of evaluating , establishing and monitoring many components
of spatial data quality.
Topology explicitly defines spatial relationships within and between
GIS datasets.
• Examples of possible applications of topology in natural resources
GIS:
Within GIS datasets Between GIS datasets
-Land classes (stands) must - Depletion plots must not
not overlap overlap reserves
-No gaps (holes) between - Sample plots must contain
adjacent lands classes sample points; or, sample
(stands) or inside stands can points must be within
exist sample plots.
- Roads must not overlap - Vegetation polygons must
- Roads must not have gaps be covered by soil polygons.
along the road line
 Topology in ArcGIS
• ArcGIS provides many ways to associate features
and records with each other in a geo-database.
• When setting up relationships between
geographic features, the first step is to model the
spatial relationships between features.
• Consider how you can use geo-database
topologies, geometric networks, shared-edge
editing, geometry snapping during editing, and
geospatial operators in your data model.
• These methods help you efficiently create and
maintain data.
 Applying Topology in GIS
Topology applications
• Terrain – TIN surfaces
• Network – Road networks
• Topology – Correct polygons
• Parcel Fabric – Land polygons with no gaps
• Geometric Network – Pipe networks with
elevation data
 Applying Topology in GIS
Topology applications
• Terrain
• Network
• Topology
• Parcel Fabric
• Geometric Network
Applying Topology in GIS
Applying Topology in GIS
 Applying Topology in GIS
Polygon rules
 Applying Topology in GIS
Line rules

Must Not Intersect With

Must Not Have Dangles