HANDLING LARGE TERRAIN DATA IN GIS

This paper presents a research and development project that will provide an extension to 2D geo-databases for handling large terrain data. It first discusses application requirements and system design, and then elaborates system architecture for optimal data organization and updating, efficient multi-resolution queries, and dynamic DTM generation. It then addresses technical issues related to data storage, seamless tiling, vertical indexing, and DTM generalization. Finally, it discusses the limitations and shortcomings of the current approach, and identifies future research and development tasks.