Three-dimensional primitive objects for next generation of geo-database management system

Abstract

A variety of issues and aspects need to be addressed and investigated during the evolutions of two - dimensional Geographical Information System (2D GIS) to three - dimensional Geographical Information System (3D GIS). Issues that need to be addressed are 3D spatial data modeling, 3D data management and 3D analysis. In order to construct objects in 3D environment, variety of 3D geometries are needed in Database Management System (DBMS). Most mainstream DBMS only supports several simple 3D geometries such as 3D points, 3D lines, and 3D polygons. Complex shapes and volumetric shapes are not supported by the current DBMSs. However in the real world, objects are modeled by various shapes of geometry and not restricted to simple shapes. The lack of various geometries in DBMS may give limitations to users to model and store some objects in the database. Thus, this research attempts to investigate and implement several 3D geometries based on volumetric shapes or known as 3D primitive objects. Four types of 3D primitive objects were used in this research and the objects are cone, cylinder, sphere and torus. New procedure to construct each shape were investigated and implemented in the database. Each developed procedure was tested using simulation datasets as well as real datasets. The constructed object should be able to provide users with some information by using simple query to the related objects table. This research work could be extended in the future by providing more geometry types in geo-DBMS.