Spatial Information
Retrieval
Xuejiao Liu
INF 385F: WIRED
Fall 2004
Spatial Data Mining and Knowledge
Discovery
Used for mining data in spatial databases
with huge amounts of data
 Spatial data is defined as location-related
data in an object
 A spatial database stores spatial objects
and spatial relationships between these
objects
 Important application - GIS

What is GIS
Geographic Information System
 A computer-based system for storing,
analyzing, and reporting map and spatial
database, providing environmental, social
economic and geographic information.
 A computer-assisted information system
to collect, store, manipulate and display
spatial within the context of an
organization, with the purpose of
functioning as a decision support system

What is GIS
Layers or Themes:
•Objects that contain
spatial information are
represented as several
different layers where each
layer holds data about a
particular kind of feature.
•Each feature is linked to a
position on the graphical
image on a map and a
record in an attribute table.
GIS Components
Hardware (computer system)
 Software
 Data (spatial database)
 Developers and users
 Analysis and modeling

Spatial Databases in GIS
Data capture
 Data storage/retrieval
 Data display

Data Storage
WELL_NA
ME
CONT__
STA
T
08 1
LATITUDE
LONGITUD
E
TD__M_
OPERATOR
COMPLET
ED
dry
-4.797222
12.478333
409.00
Gulf Oil Corp
19680100
Lower Congo Basin
100 1
dry
-5.580444
12.341944
1048.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19671203
Lower Congo Basin
101 1
dry
-5.580278
12.486944
844.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19690324
Lower Congo Basin
109 1
dry
-5.618333
12.162500
1370.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680204
Lower Congo Basin
109 2
dry
-5.616667
12.163333
1369.77
Gulf Oil Corp
19680204
Lower Congo Basin
109 3
dry
-5.624722
12.156944
3539.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680301
Lower Congo Basin
110 1
dry
-5.590278
12.178611
1067.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680211
Lower Congo Basin
111 1
dry
-5.653306
12.267528
1197.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680120
Lower Congo Basin
111 2
dry
-5.660417
12.260000
2750.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19711001
Lower Congo Basin
112 1
dry
-5.645556
12.355000
1064.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680108
Lower Congo Basin
113 1
dry
-5.620000
12.453611
915.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19671211
Lower Congo Basin
113 2
dry
-5.631417
12.435972
1214.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19671220
Lower Congo Basin
122 2
dry
-5.675000
12.241667
1372.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680127
Lower Congo Basin
122 3
dry
-5.732222
12.175278
4304.00
Gulf Oil Corp
19680919
Lower Congo Basin
123 2
dry
-5.668333
12.256667
1370.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680114
Lower Congo Basin
123 3
dry
-5.726111
12.266667
1840.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680219
Lower Congo Basin
123 4
dry
-5.684444
12.286389
3601.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680514
Lower Congo Basin
123 5
gas
-5.706667
12.270556
2644.00
Gulf Oil Corporation
19680000
Lower Congo Basin
BASIN
Data Display
A Example of Information analysis in GIS




Stating the problem
Breaking down the
problem into a series of
objectives
Assigning value of
suitability to the
objectives
Finding suitable areas
Web GIS

Web-GIS
 Web
GIS is a geographic information system that GIS
data and functionality are made available over the
Internet.

How’s it work
 On
the server side: GIS database and applications
 On the client side: a user interface within a web
browser.
Web GIS

Web GIS Advantages
 Unlimited
access
 Low
cost
 Easily to use

Web GIS Disadvantages
 Download
time
 Affected by network traffic
 Limited functions
Web GIS

Web GIS Examples:
 National
Geographic MapMachine
 Natural Resources Information