Measuring positional error of circular curve features in Geographic information systems (GIS)

This paper addresses the task of modeling positional uncertainty of circular features. The specific interest provided by this study is the consideration of the actual curve function in the measurement of circular curve error. This approach differs from the existing methods based on line segment approximation. A least-squares adjustment method, composed of a series of discrete points and the covariance of these parameters, is adopted to estimate the parameters of a circular curve. Two geometric measures are developed, based on the error ellipses of the points on the circular curve: the standard deviation-based measure and the maximum distance-based measure. A comparison of the two measures for circular curves was conducted by means of a simulation experiment. The implementation of the two geometric measures is further illustrated by two case studies; one describes the positional error of digital shorelines and the other digitizes circular road curves.

[1]  International symposium on spatial data handling , 1984 .

[2]  C. Ghilani,et al.  Adjustment Computations: Statistics and Least Squares in Surveying and GIS , 1987 .

[3]  Jonathan Li,et al.  Use of Satellite Imagery for Establishing Road Horizontal Alignments , 2007 .

[4]  Robert B McMaster,et al.  Generalization in Digital Cartography , 2008 .

[5]  Wilhelm Caspary,et al.  Positional accuracy in spatial databases , 1993 .

[6]  Hans-Jörg Wenz.  Interpolation of curve data by blended generalized circles , 1996, Comput. Aided Geom. Des..

[7]  Hui Lin,et al.  Isobathymetric Line Simplification with Conflict Removal Based on a B-spline Snake Model , 2007 .

[8]  Nicholas R. Chrisman,et al.  A THEORY OF CARTOGRAPHIC ERROR AND ITS MEASUREMENT IN DIGITAL DATA BASES , 2008 .

[9]  C Nitecki.  The carotid labyrinth in some Plethodontidae. , 1965, Bulletin de l'Academie polonaise des sciences. Serie des sciences biologiques.

[10]  M. Goodchild,et al.  Geographic Information Systems and Science (second edition) , 2001 .

[11]  A. K. Bregt,et al.  Spatial Data Quality , 2008, Encyclopedia of GIS.

[12]  Eric Saux.  B-spline Curve Fitting: Application to Cartographic Generalization of Maritime Lines , 1998 .

[13]  M. Goodchild,et al.  Uncertainty in geographical information , 2002 .

[14]  Robert Jeansoulin,et al.  Fundamentals of Spatial Data Quality , 2006 .

[15]  Paul V. Bolstad,et al.  Errors in GIS , 1992 .

[16]  Michael Blakemore,et al.  Part 4: Mathematical, Algorithmic and Data Structure Issues: Generalisation and Error in Spatial Data Bases , 1984 .

[17]  Robert B McMaster,et al.  The Integration Of Simplification And Smoothing Algorithms In Line Generalization , 1989 .

[18]  Michael Blakemore,et al.  The accuracy of spatial databases , 1991 .

[19]  Wenzhong Shi.  A Generic Statistical Approach for Modelling Error of Geometric Features in GIS , 1998, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[20]  Michael F. Goodchild,et al.  NATIONAL CENTER FOR GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS , 1998 .

[21]  Gerard B. M. Heuvelink,et al.  Error Propagation in Environmental Modelling with GIS , 1998 .

[22]  Kaichang Di,et al.  Digital Tide-Coordinated Shoreline , 2002 .

[23]  Wenzhong Shi,et al.  A stochastic process-based model for the positional error of line segments in GIS , 2000, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[24]  Wenzhong Shi,et al.  Principles of Modeling Uncertainties in Spatial Data and Spatial Analyses , 2009 .