SQL Server as DB behind a GIS

  • Hello all,

    I've spent the last couple of weeks attempting to gain a surface knowledge of the GIS space in general, and the use of SQL DBs as a GIS backend.  I have to confess that I am feeling a bit humbled at how difficult it is to locate useful, useable, entry level information on the subject.

    Is anyone out there actively working in the GIS space and willing to entertain a few newbie questions via email?  Perhaps someone knows of a GIS forum similar to SQLServerCentral?

    Thanks in advance

    Wayne

  • I think we house some GIS data.  It can grow to be a very large database (40 to 50 GB).  I am not familiar with the application so I can't help you with that.  I just support the back end of it.

     

    mom

  • I am the GIS DBA for a County Government for mapping.  I understand the database more that the GIS Tools.

    Currently our maps are maintained with Micro Station from Intergraph and a tool called MGE.  MGE has a number of tables in SQL-Server to support the mapping environment.  The maps themselves are graphic files at the windows level.  The links to the real estate information is maintained in the database.

    There are newer graphic environments that keep the maps in the database.  We have looked into some of them but are in no hurry to change everything we have.

    Whatever graphic tool you choose will have their own set of tables for maintaining GIS.

    I ran across this link that compares some of the gis tools.  The two main players in the field seem to be Intergraph (Micro Station, Geomedia) and Esri (ArcGIS, etc.).

    http://www.csiss.org/SPACE/resources/gis.php/

    Hope this helps.

    Steve

  • G'day all,

    Thank you for the responses so far.  They are helpful. 

    I am currently scoping out a potential new product.  Without going into too much detail, the development effort of the product is largely determined by how well we can work with publicly available data, such as SDTS data sets, and the associated layers such as point features and infrastructure.  I am specifically looking for algorithms/tutorials/free source code that will help me understand just what is involved in loading the public data streams into a set of tables. 

    I don't mind using commercial packages to load up the data, but I really need to understand what the load routines are doing.  I have found the SDTS++ links.  I also found vterrain.org which is doing tangentially related stuff.

    The graphical front end is largely irrelevant to me - as the data will be used entirely in back-end analytics and processing.  Displaying the results is trivial once the data is in the DB and available for analysis.

    Again, thank you for the replies.  If I find the "holy grail" then I will post the link back to this thread.

    Have a great day!

    Wayne

  • It all depends on what you want to do with the data/how it is to be associated. 

    If you want to associate data with lines (e.g. points on roads) that's relatively easy to do with relational data, but if you want to do dynamic queries associating points with(in) shapes (or overlaps of shapes) that's where the vendor tools have to be used, and the dynamic nature slows way down. 

    ESRI has a version that supports SQL Server as a backend.

     

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