THE DISPLAY AND ANALYSIS OF VARIABLE RESOLUTION SPATIAL DATAIN A GIS ENVIRONMENT

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RESOLUTION INDEPENDENCE IS THE FOUNDATION OF AN INTEGRATED, FORMAT-INDEPENDENT, GIS-PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT. RESOLUTION INDEPENDENCE MEANS THAT RASTER DATA OF ANY PIXEL DIMENSION, COEXISTING WITH (THEORETICALLY) "DIMENSION FREE" POINTS AND LINES, MAY BE STORED AND PROCESSED IN A GIS ENVIRONMENT. IT REMOVES THE REQUIREMENTS FOR PHYSICAL RESAMPLING AND DATA FILE INTEGRATION PROCESSES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO UNMANAGEABLE SYSTEM OVERHEADS FOR STORAGE AND PROCESSING IN LARGE-SCALE SPATIAL ANALYSIS PROJECTS. PHASE I WILL ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF RESOLUTION-INDEPENDENT PROCESSING AND EXAMINE ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR DATABASE MANAGEMENT, MIXED DATATYPE PROCESSING (RASTER AND VECTOR), AND INPUT-STORAGE-OUTPUT OPERATIONS (HARDWARE). THE RESULTS WOULD BE APPLIED TO A PHASE II EFFORT DIRECTED TOWARD A SYSTEM-LEVEL INTEGRATION OF RESOLUTION-INDEPENDENT RASTER, VECTOR, AND ATTRIBUTE DATA PROCESSING IN A GIS CONTEXT. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RESOLUTION INDEPENDENCE IS THE FOUNDATION OF AN INTEGRATED, FORMAT-INDEPENDENT, GIS-PROCESSING ENVIRONMENT. RESOLUTION INDEPENDENCE MEANS THAT RASTER DATA OF ANY PIXEL DIMENSION, COEXISTING WITH (THEORETICALLY) "DIMENSION FREE" POINTS AND LINES, MAY BE STORED AND PROCESSED IN A GIS ENVIRONMENT. IT REMOVES THE REQUIREMENTS FOR PHYSICAL RESAMPLING AND DATA FILE INTEGRATION PROCESSES THAT CONTRIBUTE TO UNMANAGEABLE SYSTEM OVERHEADS FOR STORAGE AND PROCESSING IN LARGE-SCALE SPATIAL ANALYSIS PROJECTS. PHASE I WILL ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF RESOLUTION-INDEPENDENT PROCESSING AND EXAMINE ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR DATABASE MANAGEMENT, MIXED DATATYPE PROCESSING (RASTER AND VECTOR), AND INPUT-STORAGE-OUTPUT OPERATIONS (HARDWARE). THE RESULTS WOULD BE APPLIED TO A PHASE II EFFORT DIRECTED TOWARD A SYSTEM-LEVEL INTEGRATION OF RESOLUTION-INDEPENDENT RASTER, VECTOR, AND ATTRIBUTE DATA PROCESSING IN A GIS CONTEXT.