Introduction
Everybody has once used Maps for navigation and searched for the distance between two places or shops near us. Everyone must have also seen the maps on food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy. All types of maps that we interact with depend upon spatial data. Spatial Data describes data related to geographic information about a particular location on Earth. Longitude and Latitude coordinates, Elevation, etc., are considered spatial data.
Spatial Data
Spatial Data is standardized by the Open Geospatial Consortium, which has established OpenGIS or Open Geographic Information System as a standard for spatial data. Spatial databases store data of 2D, 2.5D, and 3D objects. 2D objects have length and width. 3D objects have length, width, and height. 2.5D is a particular type of spatial data. They are 2D objects, with the other half dimension being the Elevation. So they can be considered as objects with length, width, and Elevation. 2.5D spatial data contains mapping information and is often referred to as the GISs or the Geographic Information Systems. The spatial data comprise lines, points, and polygons. Spatial data is one of the most complex types of data and storing them successfully serves as the biggest challenge.
The Developers and the Designers create index mechanisms (spatial indices) to deal with all the necessary queries and visual representations of the data stored in spatial databases. The indexing mechanisms help deal with queries like “Distance between Point A and Point B?” etc.
Spatial data also have applications such as precise 3D modeling of human anatomy, buildings, and atmosphere, gathering data from sensor networks, and integrating historical data to test 3D space and objects.