By Christiaan Lemmen, contributing editor, GIM International

This is the fourth and last in the present form of in a series on ‘Spatial Data Management in Geo-databases’ (RDBMS) since its introduction in 2002.

Developments in Geo-Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have a serious impact on the development of geo-spatial data infrastructures. Developments in ICT such as internet, database management systems, information system modelling standard UML (Unified Modelling Language), and positioning systems, improve the quality, cost-effectiveness, performance and maintainability of geo-spatial data infrastructures in all its manifestations. Users and industry have accepted standardisation efforts made in the spatial area by the Open Geospatial Consortium and the International Standards Organisation. Many internet-GIS applications are already operational, and this may also be said of mobile GIS applications.

Geo-databases are the ‘spider in the web’ in these developments. (Open source) geo-databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL open up perspectives in such developments, also in less developed countries. Today the functionalities for information management are so comprehensive that their representation within a Product Survey template such as that used over recent years in GIM International is complex. For example, subjects like ‘spatial indexing’, ‘optimising approaches’, ‘spatial joining algorithms’ and ‘topology management’ may relate to very sophisticated approaches not easily condensed and described in a survey matrix box. In my first Product Survey on RDBMS in 2002 I observed that spatial-data management was traditionally supported within GIS environments. Integration with other datasets has to be organised within such environments with the aid of complementary architectures. As more and more support for spatial-data management becomes available in RDBMS, direct integration with other datasets may be organised in an increasingly flexible way. This allows for fast data access, easy product development, avoidance of duplication of spatial data etc. Five years on, a set of mature geo-databases is available on the market, and a product like PostgreSQL has, of course, a much longer history. Thanks to OGC, developments have been rapid.

This Product Survey is based on information provided by geo-database suppliers; it is not a benchmark and it is not related to any assessment. A new series of features on geo-databases in GIM International would be a better approach to further introducing the functionality, applications, references and integration in geo-spatial data infrastructures. All Geo-database suppliers are invited to contribute their ideas.

I would like to thank all providers of geo-databases for their support over the past five years; I look forward to further co-operation in the near future. And I should like to thank Prof Peter van Oosterom, University of Delft, in the Netherlands, for his support in producing this Product Survey.