Distributing mapping objects with the Geospatial Information Database

Abstract

The Geospatial Information Database (GIDB) is an implementation of ongoing research in object-oriented geographic data modeling at the Naval Research Laboratory's Mapping, Charting and Geodesy Branch. GIDB has evolved from an initial memory-resident application, involving vector mapping data, to the current state-of-the-art system of a distributed object-oriented database with Web-based viewing capabilities for vector, raster, hypertext and multimedia data, as well as remote updating of vector data. The use of geographic data is becoming pervasive across many disciplines. At the same time, end users are becoming increasingly dependent upon the Web as a source of readily available, easily accessible information. We believe these two factors necessitate the development of systems that are capable of immediate distribution and access to complex spatial data objects. In this paper, we present the design strategies and implementation architecture of GIDB.