A spatial data structure integrating GIS and simulation in a marine environment

Abstract

Various problems exist when the spatial data structure of a terrestrial geographic information system (GIS) is used in a marine context. These problems include specifying the spatial relationships of unconnected objects, such as observation locations, and the necessity for frequent modification of the location of marine features. We propose using the Voronoi tesselation as an alternative, as it may be used to specify the spatial relationships of unconnected objects, for example, data points as well as line segments, and may be dramatically modified as required, without rebuilding the whole topology. Applications include well‐behaved interpolation methods; the specification of complex objects, including polygons; buffer zone generation; dynamic updating and preservation of the history of previous updates; rapid digitizing techniques; navigation and collision detection; and the modeling of fluid flow. The approach thus appears to have general application to many marine GIS problems.

Keywords:

• geographic information systems
• Voronoi diagrams
• interpolation
• navigation
• simulation