Geographical Information

Systems

Lecture 4
GIS Data Modeling Part II
-Raster Data Model-

Dr. Naglaa Fathy

naglaa_fathy@cis.asu.edu.eg
Image source: Westfield State University
 Agenda

• Raster Data Model Vs. Vector Data Model

• Data structure for raster data model
• Acquiring raster data
• conversion between raster and vector data

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 Recap
• Representing the Earth

VECTOR

RASTER

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 Raster Data Model
❑ Raster data is a method for storage, processing, and display of spatial data.
❑ Eachgiven area is divided into rows and columns, which form a regular grid
(or matrix) of cells (or pixels).
❑ These cells are usually square and evenly spaced in the x and y directions.
❑ Each cell within this matrix contains an attribute value.
❑ Raster
data is space-filling, that it stores each cell in the matrix regardless of
whether it is a feature or simply 'empty' space.
❑ empty space in a map does not contain map symbols, text, or other elements.
❑ empty space may indicate a lack of knowledge, or an expression of particular
worldviews.

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Raster and Vector Representation

Real World
R E E 6575000
H E
E H R E E
E R P P E E
P
E R P P Eucalypts
R P P
Pine Forest
R
R
R H H

R House
R R
6555000
561000 581000
Raster Representation Vector Representation
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 Cell value
Cell values can be integer, or floating point depending on Raster data:
❑Discrete Data:
✓ represents qualitative (categorical) features such as land-use or soils data.
✓ Discrete data usually consists of integers to represent classes. For example,
the value 1 might represent urban areas, the value 2 represents forest, etc.
❑ Continuous Data:
✓ represents phenomena (gradually changing data) such as temperature,
elevation, or spectral data such as satellite images and aerial photographs.
✓ Continuous data usually consists of floating-point values.

❑No Data:
✓ Represents missing (unknown) information
✓ NoData to identify areas where GIS analyst does not wish to compute real
values.
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Generic Structure of a Grid

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 Cell Size (Resolution)
❑Pixel/cellrefers to the smallest unit of information available in an
image or raster map.
❑The level of detail, or level of accuracy of a grid layer depends on the
size of the grid cells also called resolution.
✓ Cell size specifies the length and width of the cell in surface units,
e.g., the cell dimension may be specified as 30 meters on each side.
✓ volume of data increases as the cell size gets smaller.
• Smaller cell size provides greater spatial detail.

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 Cell Size (Resolution)

Reducing the cell dimension by four causes a sixteen-fold increase in the number of cells
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Effect of Resolution

16 m

16 m

Larger Cell Size Smaller Cell Size

• Lower resolution • Higher resolution
• Lower feature spatial accuracy • Higher feature spatial accuracy
• Faster display • Slower display
• Faster processing • Slower processing
• Smaller file size • Larger file size
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 Hierarchy of the raster data structure
• Cartographic
Model (database)
Title
• Map layer
Cartographic
Model
Map layer
Resolution Class ID
• Class and zone
(region)
Map layer Column • Location (cell)
Orientation Attributes
coordinate

Map layer Row

Class Location
coordinate

Class Location

Class Location

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 Cartographic model (raster database)
• A cartographic model is Buildings

the dataset describing 1 3 Forest types

3 3 3 3 1 2 2
3 3 3 1 1 2 2
selected characteristics 3
2
2
3 3 3 1 1 2 2
of each location within a 1
Soil types 3 3 1 1 2 2 2

bounded geographic Topography

3
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
2
1
area. 3 3 1 1 1 1 1

• The data for an area can Soils

be visualized as a set of
map layers
Real world

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 Map Layer
• A map layer is a set of data describing a single characteristic of each location
within a bounded geographical area.
• Only one item of information is available for each location within a single layer
(e.g., elevation, roads, urban areas, etc.).
• A layer (matrix or grid) is characterized by its resolution (cell size) & orientation.
• A layer is composed of one or more classes.

Y (row)
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X (column)
A map Layer
• Orientation is the
angle between
Class A
true north and the
Class B
direction defined
Class C by the columns of
Class D
the layer.
Class E

N
 Y

X

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 Class
• A zone is a set of contiguous cells that have the same value.
• A class refers to all individual zones that have the same value.
• A class is associated with its class ID and attributes.
• A class/zone is composed of a number of cells(locations).

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Class and Zone

1 2 1 Zone number

3 Class A
4 5
Class B
8 Class C
9
7 6
Class D
10 11
12 Class E

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 Raster Attribute Table
• The difference between a raster/grid data model and an image model
is its ability to associate attribute data with grid cells.
• Raster values and other attributes are stored in the Value Attribute
Table (VAT)
• A thematic raster contains at least two items in its VAT
• Value:
Represents some characteristics being mapped
• Count:
Number of cells that share the same value

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 Raster Attribute Table
• Raster datasets that contain attribute tables typically have cell values that
represent or define a class.
• By building a raster attribute table, you can maintain this table's attribute
information with this classified raster dataset as well as define additional
fields to be stored in it.

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 Cell (location)
• A cell is the smallest unit of
geographical space for which (x, y+M×y)

data a recorded (also called

location or pixel).
(x+n×x, y+m×y)
• A cell is uniquely identified by an
ordered pair of coordinates (row
and column numbers).
(x, y+y)
(x, y)

(x, y) (x+x, y) (x+N×x, y)

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 Acquiring Raster Data
• Raster data can be derived from:

• Satellite images (Remote sensing )

• Scanned maps.

• Conversion of vector data to raster data.

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Conversion between
raster and vector data
model

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 Spatial Data conversion
❖Vector to Raster or Rasterization
❖Raster to Vector or Vectorization

Converted data is less accurate than original data

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 Vector to Raster (V2R)
• Assign a cell value for each position occupied by vector features

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 Vector to Raster Encoding Methods
• Center Cell Method
• The center location of the cell determines the raster value encoded from the
vector data.
• Majority of Cell Method
• The value in the vector dataset that covers the majority of the cells
determines the cell value.
• Weighted Cell Method
• Analyst determines which vector value is most important by weighting the
options.
• Percent of cell method
• Encodes the cell by multiple values based on the percentage of the cell taken
up by each feature.

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Vector to Raster Encoding Methods

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 Raster to Vector (R2V)
❖Point, line, or area features represented by grid cells may be
converted to corresponding vector data coordinates and structures.
❖The quality and resolution of the raster image are key factors for the
quality and accuracy of the vectorized data.

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 Raster to Vector - Point Feature
❖A single raster cell represents point feature
❖Each vector point feature is assigned the coordinate of the
corresponding cell center.

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 Raster to Vector - Linear Feature
❖Linear features represented in a raster environment may be
converted to vector lines
❖Conversion to vector lines typically involves identifying the
continuous connected set of grid cells that form the line.
❖Cell centers are typically taken as the locations of vertices along the
line.
❖Lines may then be “smoothed” using a mathematical algorithm to
remove the “stair-step” effect.

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Raster to Vector - Linear Feature

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 Raster to Vector - Area Feature
❖Each raster cell is assigned an attribute value
❖Boundaries are set up between different attribute classes
❖A polygon is created by storing x and y coordinates for the points
adjacent to the boundaries

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ArGIS Tools for Conversion (FYI)
• Spatial Analyst, ArcScan and ArcToolbox
Conversion Tools
• Raster to polygon conversion
• Contour Generation
• Surface Interpolation from point data
• Etc.
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