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Building a Robust Relational Implementation of Topology

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Advances in Spatial and Temporal Databases (SSTD 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2750))

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Abstract

Topologically structured data models often form the core of many users’ spatial databases. Topological structuring is primarily used to ensure data integrity; it describes how spatial objects share geometry. Supporting topology within the context of a relational database imposes additional requirements – the complex topological model must retain integrity across transactional boundaries. This can be a problematic requirement given the complexities associated with implementing safe referential integrity structures in relational databases (e.g., bulk data loading into a topologically structured model) [19, 5]. Common implementation techniques such as allowing dangling pointers (i.e., null foreign keys) complicates the issues for client applications that consume these models. In this paper, we revisit the problem of building a robust and scalable relational implementation of a topologically structured data model. We propose a different approach to representing such models that avoids many of the traditional relational database problems associated with maintaining complex semantic models.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Systems Research Institute, 380 New York Street, Redlands, CA, 92373, USA

    Erik Hoel, Sudhakar Menon & Scott Morehouse

Authors
  1. Erik Hoel
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  2. Sudhakar Menon
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  3. Scott Morehouse
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Research Academic Computer Technology Institute, Patras, Greece

    Thanasis Hadzilacos

  2. Data Engineering Research Lab. Department of Informatics,, Aristotle University, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Yannis Manolopoulos

  3. Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

    John Roddick

  4. Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus, Greece

    Yannis Theodoridis

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hoel, E., Menon, S., Morehouse, S. (2003). Building a Robust Relational Implementation of Topology. In: Hadzilacos, T., Manolopoulos, Y., Roddick, J., Theodoridis, Y. (eds) Advances in Spatial and Temporal Databases. SSTD 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2750. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45072-6_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45072-6_29

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40535-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45072-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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