OBJECT-ORIENTED GIS 101
S DeMartino, E Hrnicek · Civil Engineering News · 2001
The object-oriented (OO) geographic information systems (GIS) data model is a new development in GIS technology that offers common storage of spatial data inside relational database management systems (RDBMS). This article describes the major characteristics of the OO model that differentiate it from traditional GIS models. For example, the OO design features a series of intelligent objects such as water mains and storm drains, each with predefined properties, behavior and relationships. The rules and relationships governing these intelligent objects are embedded in the initial database design. An OO GIS data model can be planned and designed using computer-aided software engineering tools and unified modeling language, and any user can edit any feature in the model at any time. Finally, the OO GIS data model can exist inside a standard corporate relational database. Because of these advantages, all major GIS software vendors are developing new GIS data-storage methods using OO GIS rather than extending traditional GIS data storage technologies. RDBMS vendors are building more support for geographic data into their native data-storage systems and Web-based GIS deployment strategies are focusing on OO GIS data as the high-performance GIS data source.