A design of three-dimensional spatial data model and its data structure in geological exploration engineering

The key to develop 3-D GISs is the study on 3-D data model and data structure. Some of the data models and data structures have been presented by scholars. Because of the complexity of 3-D spatial phenomenon, there are no perfect data structures that can describe all spatial entities. Every data structure has its own advantages and disadvantages. It is difficult to design a single data structure to meet different needs. The important subject in the 3-D data models is developing a data model that has integrated vector and raster data structures. A special 3-D spatial data model based on distributing features of spatial entities should be designed. We took the geological exploration engineering as the research background and designed an integrated data model whose data structures integrats vector and raster data by adopting object-oriented technique. Research achievements are presented in this paper.