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opposed to "data-driven" or data dependent method, as discussed further in Rigaux et al. (2002)). A grid-based spatial index has the advantage that the structure of the index can be created first, and data added on an ongoing basis without requiring any change to the index structure; indeed, if a common grid is used by disparate data collecting and indexing activities, such indices can easily be merged from a variety of sources. On the other hand, data driven structures such as
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The use of such spatial indices is not limited to digital data; the "index" section of any global or street atlas commonly contains a list of named features (towns, streets, etc.) with associated grid square identifiers, and may be considered a perfectly acceptable example of a spatial index (in this
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The individual cells of a grid system can also be useful as units of aggregation, for example as a precursor to data analysis, presentation, mapping, etc. For some applications (e.g., statistical analysis), equal-area cells may be preferred, although for others this may not be a prime consideration.
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Hexagonal grids may also be used. In general, triangular and hexagonal grids are constructed so as to better approach the goals of equal-area (or nearly so) plus more seamless coverage across the poles, which tends to be a problem area for square or rectangular grids since in these cases, the cell
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In practice, construction of grid-based spatial indices entails allocation of relevant objects to their position or positions in the grid, then creating an index of object identifiers vs. grid cell identifiers for rapid access. This is an example of a "space-driven" or data independent method, as
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A commonly used triangular grid is the "Quaternary
Triangular Mesh" (QTM), which was developed by Geoffrey Dutton in the early 1980s. It eventually resulted in a thesis entitled "A Hierarchical Coordinate System for Geoprocessing and Cartography" that was published in 1999. This grid was also
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width diminishes to nothing at the pole and those cells adjacent to the pole then become 3- rather than 4-sided. Criteria for optimal discrete global gridding have been proposed by both
Goodchild and Kimerling in which equal area cells are deemed of prime importance.
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into a series of contiguous cells, which can then be assigned unique identifiers and used for spatial indexing purposes. A wide variety of such grids have been proposed or are currently in use, including grids based on
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are a specialised form of grid in which the resolution of the grid is varied according to the nature and complexity of the data to be fitted, across the 2-d space. Polar grids utilize the
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In computer science, one often needs to find out all cells a ray is passing through in a grid (for raytracing or collision detection); this is called "grid traversal".
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can be more efficient for data storage and speed at search execution time, though they are generally tied to the internal structure of a given data storage system.
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Square or rectangular grids are frequently used for purposes such as translating spatial information expressed in
Cartesian coordinates (
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Rigaux, P., Scholl, M., and
Voisard, A. 2002. Spatial Databases - with application to GIS. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, 410pp.
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case, typically organised by feature name, though the reverse is conceptually also possible).
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PYXIS Discrete Global Grid System using the ISEA3H Grid
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