This is a quick analysis I wrote up for a customer, but I figured other people would get a benefit out of it as well.
The Oracle database engine has an extremely robust feature set that allows for the analyis of GIS data within the database. Within the Oracle suite there are two products to perform spatial analysis in the database. One is called Oracle Locator, while the other is called Oracle Spatial. Oracle Locator allows for basic GIS analysis. While Oracle Spatial will allow for more advanced analysis, including creating new spatial data and transforming data that already exists. Currently, Oracle Locator is a free component of every database that Oracle sells; this includes OracleXE, Oracle Standard Edition and Oracle Enterprise Edition. Below you will find a list of all the features you can perform with each product and some examples of what can be done with that feature.
Oracle Locator
|
Functionality |
Feature Name |
Example Use |
|
Support for All Spatial Geometry |
Points, Point Clusters, Lines, Line Strings, Compound Line Strings, Polygons, Polygons with Holes, Compound Polygons, Arc Strings, Circles, Rectangles |
All the counties in the United States |
|
Spatial Indexing |
|
R-Tree indexing to speed up query performance – selecting only the data needed, not an entire layer |
|
Spatial Operators |
SDO_FILTER SDO_RELATE SDO_NN SDO_NN_DISTANCE SDO_WITHIN_DISTANCE SDO_GEOM.SDO_DISTANCE |
The closest 100 customers to a site |
|
Two Tiered Queries |
|
Filter the data, first on the geometry elements that satisfy the condition, and then based on the relational facts (i.e. first find all customers within 5 miles, then find the ones that have spent more than $5,000 this year) |
|
Open Standards |
|
Certified with the Open Geospatial Consortium and OpenGIS standards |
|
Long Transaction / Workspace Management |
|
Create new “What If?” scenarios |
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Oracle Spatial
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|
Functionality |
Feature Name |
Example Use |
|
Length and area based calculations |
Length / Area |
What is the average size of site locations? |
|
Generation of new geometries |
Buffer, Centroid, Convex Hull Geometry Intersection, Geometry Union |
Creating regions from current properties |
|
Spatial Analytic Functions |
|
Determining what percentage of customers are within 5 miles of locations Identify which communities are growing and where to acquire new land for opportunities Find the highest income areas to launch for new executive line of products |
|
Coordinate system transformations |
SDO_CS.TRANFORM SDO_CS.TRANSFORM_LAYER |
Translate data from localized projections to a national projection |
|
Raster image support |
|
Include aerial images with the application to assist in problem analysis |
|
Network datamodels |
|
Can I make a left hand turn at this intersection? |
|
Geocoding |
|
Standardize addresses based on postal information |
|
Routing |
|
How do I get to the nearest gas station from my current position? |
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Nice work Matt! A couple more to add to the Spatial list: Linear Referencing (LRS) and Topology Data Model.
Linear Referencing is a model where “measurement” information associated with a linear geometry is stored with the geometries themselves. This allows many attributes or events to be associated with a specified segment on a linear geometry. Attributes or events are stored in tables separately from the geometry, and the geometry does not have to be duplicated in the attribute tables. Linear referencing is often used by departments of transportation, to model roads or railroads and their attributes; utilities, to model oil or gas pipes and their attributes; and telecommunications providers. A good example of this might be, “return all of the road segments that have poor pavement” or “a vehicle has gone off the highway at some longitude/latitude; what’s the mile post there so ambulances can reach it easily?” etc.
Topology Data Modeling is used when there is a high degree of feature editing and a strong requirement for data integrity across maps and map layers. An example of where this is used a lot is in land management where one has to account for land parcels, water features, road features, utilities and other features. Because in the end all of these features are somehow related and may even border one another, problems topology modeling solves are things like “what happens to a land parcel or sidewalk when a road is widened?” etc.
Also…one more thing Matt: in Oracle10gR2, Locator supports implicit and explicit coordinate system transformation (just like Spatial).
Thanks Justin, I also need to add the Oracle Mapviewer and Oracle Maps content to the list too. Maybe another post soon…
I don’t know if the version you evaluated previously give support to SDO_RELATE, but in the 10g and 11g this operator is available only in the Oracle Spatial.
reference: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/appdev.112/e11830/sdo_locator.htm#i632018
Regards,
Uilian.