Spatial database

A spatial database is a database that is optimized to store and query data that is related to objects in space, including points, lines and polygons. While typical databases can understand various numeric and character types of data, additional functionality needs to be added for databases to process spatial data types. These are typically called geometry or feature. The Open Geospatial Consortium created the Simple Features specification and sets standards for adding spatial functionality to database systems.[1]

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Features of spatial databases

Database systems use indexes to quickly look up values and the way that most databases index data is not optimal for spatial queries. Instead, spatial databases use a spatial index to speed up database operations.

In addition to typical SQL queries such as SELECT statements, spatial databases can perform a wide variety of spatial operations. The following query types and many more are supported by the Open Geospatial Consortium:

Not all spatial databases support these query types.

Spatial Index

Spatial indexes are used by spatial databases (databases which store information related to objects in space) to optimize spatial queries. Indexes used by non-spatial databases cannot effectively handle features such as how far two points differ and whether points fall within a spatial area of interest. Common spatial index methods include:

Geography

A geodatabase is a database designed to store, query, and manipulate geographic information and spatial data of low dimensionality. It is a specialized type of spatial database often with optimizations for 2 and 3 dimensions, raster data and Euclidean distance.

Spatial database systems

See also

References

Further reading

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