A fast algorithm for an envelope construction of a huge set of topologically consistent polygons

Abstract

This paper describes an efficient algorithm for the determination of an envelope of a set of polygons. The polygons have to be aligned along their borders – the case which, for example, appears in geographic information systems. The edges, which belong to two neighbouring polygons, are called twin edges, and are eliminated first. To accelerate the geometric search, a two-level uniform plane subdivision structure is proposed. The remaining non-twin edges belong to the envelope, and they have to be joined to form the simple polygons at the end. For this task, a new algorithm has been developed. At the end, spatial relationships between resulting polygons are established. The whole algorithm for envelope determination works in expected time O(n log n) using O(n) memory space, where n is the total number of edges belonging to the input polygons. In the last part of the paper, practical results using data from a geographical database are considered.