Object-based spatial database

An object-based spatial database is a <a href="/facts/Spatial_database/wzPAetLd">spatial database</a> that stores the location as <a href="/facts/Object_database/Vfej0eDT">objects</a>. The object-based spatial model treats the world as surface littered with recognizable objects (e.g. cities, rivers), which exist independent of their locations.
Objects can be simple as <a href="/facts/Polygon/yAq7RjPz">polygons</a> and lines, or be more complex to represent cities.
While a field-based data model sees the world as a continuous surface over which features (e.g. elevation) vary, using an object-based spatial database, it is easier to store additional attributes with the objects, such as direction, speed, etc. Using these attributes can make it easier to answer queries like "find all tanks whose speed is 10 km and oriented to north". Or "find all enemy tanks in a certain region".
Storing attributes with objects can provide better result presentation and improved manipulation capabilities in a more efficient way. In a field-based data model, this information is usually stored at different layers and it is harder to extract different information from various layers. This data model can be applied above the ER as in GERM model and GISER.
S.Shekhar introduces direction as a spatial object and presents a solution to object-direction-based queries.

Object-based spatial database open-in-new

Object-based spatial database