An object-oriented approach to spatial data capture

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have recently adopted an object-oriented data model for developing their applications. However, the approach to capturing data for GIS remains unchanged. This has caused an inefficient gap in the GIS implementation process, since the traditional map model used to capture spatial data is not consistent with the object-oriented conceptual model now used by GIS.; In this dissertation I tried to determine the benefits of adopting an object-oriented approach to GIS data capture, which bridges the gap in the GIS implementation process and mitigates some of the known issues with capturing spaghetti or unstructured digital data.; To determine the benefits of the new approach, map and object-oriented data models for capturing data using manual digitizing were first compared. From this comparison it was observed that the key differences between the approaches occur in the modeling phase of an object-oriented approach, and the preparation phase of a map model approach. In the measurement phase, both approaches are similar.; A practical evaluation was then undertaken to study the modeling phase of object-oriented digitizing and the preparation phase of map model digitizing. The relationships and constraints for the object-oriented approach, and the preparation steps for the map model approach were tabulated and used to form generalizations about the two approaches.; The results of the study show that the benefits of an object-oriented approach to GIS data capture are that data are validated while being captured, and all data required by a data model are provided during data capture. However, there are instances when an object-oriented approach is not effective.