AN INTEGRATED DATA MODEL IN THREE DIMENSIONAL GIS

The current GIS can only deal with 2-D or 2.5-D information on the earth surface. A new 3-D data structure and data model need to be designed for the 3-D GIS. This paper analyzes diverse 3-D spatial phenomena from mine to geology and their complicated relations, and proposes several new kinds of spatial objects including cross-section, column body and digital surface model to represent some special spatial phenomena like tunnels and irregular surfaces of an ore body. An integrated data structure including vector, raster and object-oriented data models is used to represent various 3-D spatial objects and their relations. The integrated data structure and object-oriented data model can be used as bases to design and realize a 3-D geographic information system.