Database Design Concepts and Data Integration

URISA February 9th, 2005 Bob Earle

3/10/2005 1

Agenda
A few Design tips and guidelines, some of which I learned the hard way Many GIS staff get database design and maintenance thrust upon them The revolution of GIS at Sacramento County; how we became a data integrator, but not necessarily by plan

Design of a Spatial system is like any other Enterprise application

Earlier is Better

Translation of User Requirements

Business Rules Model the Users View

Entity Relationship Diagram

Good design tool, good communication tool

Access ERD (Relationships)

You may already have an ERD tool and not know it

UML

May look complicated, but at its heart is the ERD

Sacramento County ERD

Normalization
Remove Repeating Groups Every non-key column must be dependent on all parts of the primary key No non-key column may be functionally dependent on another non-key column

Introduced by E.F. Codd

Every attribute will refer to the Primary key, the whole key and nothing but the key, so help me Codd
A table should have a field that uniquely identifies each of its records, and each field in the table should describe the subject that the table represents
Database Design for Mere Mortals by Michael Hernandez

Database Data Models

Metadata

Database Design Fallacies

Design your system to replicate existing practices You can throw your data model away when you have implemented your database I will just put it in a note Metadata is too much trouble My spreadsheet is good enough GIS shouldnt be putting its nose into everybodys business

More Database Design Fallacies

Nobody will ever need my data Just import your shapefiles into SDE and voila you have a Geodatabase Normalized data is fast performing data Spatial data is just data

Database Design Truths

Spatial data is just data Design on paper, then a computer Earlier is better Document deviances from the conceptual design

More Database Design Truths

Use meaningful attribute and table names Flag for deletion, rather than delete Take the users key away Use database constraints, rather than coded business rules

What is so Special about Spatial Data?

How it is the same than regular data
Data relationships Integrity Key Asset Database

How it is different
Spatial Key (Location is a type of key) Topology Heavy load Long transaction Advanced data type

Early GIS

Community GIS

Evolution of the spatial data model

Ian McCarg Design With Nature

ArcInfo Coverages

Oracle Spatial ArcStorm SDE GeoDatabase Shape File

True Spatially True Spatially Enabled Enabled Database Database

GIS Layers
Points Lines Polygons Surfaces

3D

Scanned Maps

Scanned Documents

Attribute Data

Orthophotography

Levels of Data Integration

If it were a perfect (GIS) World

Spa tial
t rne Inte

Transactions

Universal Database

Regional

Do

e um c

n ts

Dep

artm enta

I cant say it was easy, but I can say it was worth it!!

Sacramento County Property Systems (Without data sharing)

SAP/ COMPASS (Oracle) GHB/GAX Applications (Mainframe)

PDB Application (Mainframe)

APS Permits system (Oracle) CPS Unsecured Tax Application (Oracle)

Utility Billing/ CUBS (SAP?,Oracle?) Public Works Direct Levy Maintenance Application

GIS (ESRI)

Planning

Sacramento County Property Systems

SAP/ COMPASS (Oracle) GHB/GAX Applications (Mainframe)

PDB Application (Mainframe)

APS Permits system (Oracle) CPS Unsecured Tax Application (Oracle) County-wide Shared Property Data Warehouse

Utility Billing/ CUBS (SAP?,Oracle?) Public Works Direct Levy Maintenance Application

GIS (ESRI)

Planning

Examples of Shared Data Benefits

Tax Rate Areas Vineyards Utility Billing Minimize data redundancy and costs in the Regional Cooperative

Data Ownership, Dissemination, and Accessibility Policies

Ownership - Departments own their data, GIS is the middleman Dissemination - Open Access, Cooperative Mapping based on Standards Access - Concerns over safety

Database Architecture
Transactional Transactional

Warehouse

Warehouse

Shared Firewall

Shared

Summary - Benefits of Good Design

Data integrity Flexibility in data retrieval and analysis Follows business rules and therefore supports organizational requirements Easier to share data Different users access same data Accommodates different views of the data Minimal Data Redundancy Breaks out of Spreadsheet mentality

Questions, Comments?
earleb@saccounty.net exliner@saccounty.net perrym@saccounty.net