III-Small: SPAL3D - Design and Implementation of a Type System
for Three-Dimensional Spatial Data in Databases


NSF logo This material is based in part upon work supported and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant Number IIS-0915914. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. NSF logo


The following information is provided about this project:


Project Summary


Project Abstract

The research objective is the design and implementation of a new formal data model and type system called Spatial Algebra 3D (SPAL3D) for three-dimensional (3D) spatial data in database systems and geographical information systems. While these systems so far focus on two-dimensional spatial entities only, despite many potential geoscience applications, three-dimensional (3D) data modeling and data management have so far been rather neglected. This research and education project explores the fundamental properties and the structure of complex 3D spatial data from a data management and database perspective, identifies their most important operations and predicates, and supports their treatment in data modeling, representation, storing, manipulation, and querying. SPAL3D is extensible, makes it possible to add new types and operations, and can be plugged into different DBMS. The solution approach is based on three three fundamental pillars: (i) an abstract data model (SPAL3D-A) for the rigorous, mathematical definition of a comprehensive type system (algebra) for 3D spatial data including volumes, surfaces, and 3D lines, (ii) a discrete data model (SPAL3D-D) for the design of effective geometric data structures for the 3D spatial data types of SPAL3D-A and on efficient geometric algorithms on these data structures for the 3D operations and predicates of SPAL3D-A, and (iii) the implementation and database integration (SPAL3D-I) of the data structures and algorithms of SPAL3D-D as abstract data types into several extensible DBMS data models and query languages. The results of this research are expected to have broad impact on applications in areas where the third dimension of spatial data plays an important role. Examples are geographical information systems, meteorology, hurricane research, environmental monitoring, pollution control, soil science, water supply and distribution, fishery monitoring and simulating, geology, soil engineering and mining, earthquake modeling and simulation, to name only a few. The educational component of this project includes specialized classes that focus on important aspects of this project, the creation and use of new GIS educational materials, and the involvement of students in interdisciplinary research. The project web page (http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~mschneid/Research/FundedResearchProjects/NSF-IIS-0915914/spal3D.html) is used for the dissemination of research results, educational material, publications, generated data sets, produced software, and other information of interest.


Students and Alumni Involved in this Project

(In alphabetical order)

Publications Funded by this Project

Book Chapters

Markus Schneider. Spatial Databases. Int. Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology. In print.

Refereed Journal Papers

Ganesh Viswanathan & Markus Schneider. User-Centric Spatial Data Warehousing: A Survey of Requirements & Approaches. Int. Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management (IJDMMM), 6(4), 369-390, 2014. [pdf]

Ganesh Viswanathan & Markus Schneider. Querying Cardinal Directions between Complex Objects in Data Warehouses. Fundamenta Informaticae (FI), 132(2), 177-202, 2014. [pdf]

Markus Schneider & Esteban Zimányi (2013). Special Issue on Data Warehousing: From Occasional OLAP to Real-Time Business Intelligence. Int. Journal of Data Warehousing and Mining (IJDWM). 9 (2), 2013.

Cristina Ciferri, Ricardo Ciferri, Leticia Gómez, Markus Schneider, Alejandro Vaisman & Esteban Zimányi. Cube Algebra: A Generic User-Centric Model and Query Language for OLAP Cubes. Int. Journal of Data Warehousing and Mining (IJDWM), 9(2), 39-65, 2013. [pdf]

Markus Schneider, Tao Chen, Ganesh Viswanathan & Wenjie Yuan. Cardinal Directions between Complex Regions. ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), 37(2), 8:1-8:40, 2012. [pdf]

Refereed Conference Papers

Wenjie Yuan & Markus Schneider. 3D Indoor Route Planning for Arbitrary-shape Objects. 1st Int. Workshop on Spatial Information Modeling, Management and Mining (SIM3), 2011. [pdf]

Wenjie Yuan & Markus Schneider. Supporting 3D Route Planning in Indoor Space Based on the LEGO Representation. 2nd ACM SIGSPATIAL Int. Workshop on Indoor Spatial Awareness (ISA), 16-23, 2010. [pdf]

Wenjie Yuan & Markus Schneider. Supporting Continuous Range Queries in Indoor Space. 11th Int. Conf. on Mobile Data Management (MDM), 209-214, 2010. [pdf]

Wenjie Yuan & Markus Schneider. iNav: An Indoor Navigation Model Supporting Length-Dependent Optimal Routing. 13th AGILE Int. Conf. on Geographic Information Science, in: Geospatial Thinking, LNG&C, Springer-Verlag, 299-314, 2010. [pdf]

Tao Chen & Markus Schneider. The Neighborhood Configuration Model: A Framework To Distinguish Topological Relationships between Complex Volumes. 5th Int. Workshop on Semantic and Conceptual Issues in GIS (SeCoGIS), 2011. [pdf]

Tao Chen & Markus Schneider. Modeling Cardinal Directions in the 3D Space with the Objects Interaction Cube Matrix. 25th Annual ACM Symp. on Applied Computing (ACM SAC), 906-910, 2010. [pdf]

Tao Chen & Markus Schneider. Data Structures and Intersection Algorithms for 3D Spatial Data Types. 17th ACM SIGSPATIAL Int. Conf. on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS), 148-157, 2009. [pdf]


Last update: June 13, 2015.
Markus Schneider (mschneid@cise.ufl.edu)